Dell just owns the majority of the voting stock. Now Alienware is a subsidary of Dell Corp. Dell has said, "They aren't going to tamper with Alienware on a "day to day business" sense. Alienware will be running just how they were with no change.
I certainly wouldn't buy an Alienware now or before. As mentioned above, they are really over priced. I wouldn't say by half or more then half, but a good 20% to 30% over what you could build yourself with OEM components.
The thing that doesn't make sense to me is, the components they use are OEM also. And they probably get them cheaper then you and I do. Well, they have to make money somehow.
Retail packaging is really expensive and totally worthless to the end user. So you get a neat box with some packing bags and some crap software you aren't going to use anyway... They just end up in the garbage or the closet.
Give me bubble wrapping and a warranty. I'm happy.
Build your own. It's easy and costs you less.