The SEC, in a filed last month, said that Dell did not disclose exclusive payments the company received from Intel to boycott CPUs manufactured by AMD, Intel's main rival.

The SEC also alleged that Dell executives manipulated earnings by keeping "cookie jar" reserves, which were used to cover shortfalls in operating results from fiscal 2002 to fiscal 2005. It cost the company US$100 million and Michael Dell $4 million to settle those allegations. As part of the settlement, neither the company nor Dell admitted to wrongdoing.

However, there has also been frustration among investors wondering why the company's stock isn't performing, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

The company was in trouble earlier in the decade when the direct-sales PC business model almost drove the company to a dead end, King said. Michael Dell recognized that radical business changes were needed, and he revamped the company's operations after reinstating himself as CEO in 2007.

The company is in the process of re-establishing itself and has had to endure the worst economic downturn in generations, King said. But some shareholders remain believers in Dell's vision -- including an expansion of sales channels and product lines -- which could explain his reappointment to the board, King said.