Dell Takes 'Most Admired' Spot

Dell was voted the most admired company in the United States according to a poll released Monday by Time, Inc.'s Fortune magazine, supplanting Wal-Mart in the first spot and pushing IBM off the top 10 list.

Dell moved up four spots from the No. 5 position it held last year, while former big dog Wal-Mart, which had been Np. 1 for two years running, fell to Np. 4.

Rounding out the top 10 were General Electric (No. 2), Starbucks (No. 3), Southwest Airlines (No. 5), FedEx, Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble.

But while Dell grabbed honors in the annual poll -- in which 10,000 people ranked 582 companies on eight attributes, ranging from innovation and financial soundness to long-term investment and quality of products -- when computer companies peers rated their rivals, IBM came out on top.

"When it came time for computer firms to score their own, venerable Big Blue edged ahead. Why? Dell's peers see it as a brilliantly managed brand, but no innovator in raw computing," said Fortune writer Abrahm Lustgarten in a statement.