Dell Booted From S&P 100 Index; Market Cap Too Small

Dell has been booted out of the S&P 100, a stock index intended to measure the performance of the stock market's largest companies.

S&P Dow Jones Indices, the unit of McGraw-Hill that maintains the measure, said in a statement that "Dell has a market capitalization below $18.5 billion and is no longer representative of the mega-cap market space."

Wow, how grimly symbolic of the PC company's slide in importance is that?

The company will be replaced in the index by AbbVie, a drug company spun off from Abbott Laboratories.

Dell shares closed Thursday at $10.50, down 43% from their 52-week high at $18.36. During the Internet bubble years, the stock briefly traded north of $50.

This morning the stock is down 21 cents, or 2%, to $10.29.