Dell buyout 'as soon as Monday': report
Summary: According to reports, the deal which would send Dell private could be finalized as soon as next week.
Dell's buyout, an agreement between founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, could be concluded as soon as Monday.
According to Reuters, a deal could be announced formally next week. Citing two sources close to the matter, the publication says that the transaction -- which will take Dell private and away from public trading -- will be fine-tuned over the weekend.
However, no deal will be announced until all of the buyout's last-minute details are ironed out.
Yesterday, reports surfaced that Dell's founder and CEO Michael Dell would be investing between $500 million and $1 billion of his own funds to secure a large enough stake to "reposition" the firm amidst not only strong competition from rival firms -- including Lenovo -- but also in order to try and carve out a new market position in a world where the general trend is moving towards mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Bloomberg estimates that Michael Dell's stake is currently worth roughly $3.45 billion. By offering extra funds in equity financing, the Dell founder would be putting up over 50 percent of the total buyout price.
Silver Lake Partners has managed to negotiate with Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and RBC Capital to raise up to $15 billion in debt financing. In addition, it is expected that the investment group -- as well as Microsoft -- may invest between $1 and $2 billion each in order to become minority shareholders.
Dell's move to go private could be worth between $22.6 billion and $24.4 billion, equating to between $13 and $14 per share.
JPMorgan Chase & Co is advising Dell on the move to go private, and reports suggest that Evercore Partners is working to make sure that shareholders in the computing firm are getting the best deal possible.
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Start making quality products!
No bloatware!
My recent purchase of an Inspiron 15z was pretty good
Not sure how this helps Dell?
and risk upsetting other PC makers. Unless Dell plans to morph into something much different.
I don't see how being private is of any help?
MS investment
Government?
How about they just come to your door and grab that money out of your pocket rather than payroll deduction?
Government
Government? NOT!
Private ownership buys the oportunity for risk. The board dumped the streak at the first inkling that it would not be an ipad killer. A shame since it was a reasonably decent performing device months ahead of the rest of the BYOD stampead. IMHO, Dell's Board punked themself on that decision. Now the company is playing catch up again when it could have been in the top 5. That's just one example, the company history is repleat with situations like this after Michael left. I hope he waists no time in cleaning house of it's management deadweight.
You think that MS really wanted to kill this deal?
What this does give them is an investment in hardware engineering/manufacting, the same thing that Google has with Motorola, and Apple has with companies like P.A. Semiconductor and others.
No, I think they heard that and jumped at the chance to have an inside track to the technologies Dell has access to.
big customer
I wonder what this means to current Dell share holders?
Makes no sense for MS
When Dell dies it's not like companies (the only ones that really buy Dell's garbage) will say. "Oh no, Dell is gone we have to stop buying computers!!!". They will go to another crappy PC vendor. MS will still get a sale.
Makes no sense for MS
If you buy the small office (not the consumer cheap crap) laptops, they don't come with bloatware, they are configured exactly the way you want them, and they are smoking fast.
You get what you pay for. Pay $600.00 for a laptop, you get cheap crap. Pay $2700 for a laptop configured the way you want it, and you get a smoking hot machine that is solid and will last you 3 to 4 years of heavy use with 3 years on site support.
Its like the difference between a Yugo and a Ford 150 truck. You get what you pay for.
what are you smoking?
really? I paid $2100 for a Dell XPS L702X. It has been the worst POS I ever bought!
not only has it got the well documented power cord/dc problem (falls out), but the service I have had from Dell is the worst I have ever been subjected to. I was accused of breaking my own machine when I tried to get it warranted (I'm in I.T. for over 20yrs), I had to escalate it to senior staff and threaten other action in order to get someone at dell to do something positive.
In short, No, you certainly do not "get what you pay for..." at least you don't with Dell. I paid big bucks but got nothing but a big headache!
Get what you pay for
The only other machine I would have looked at, had I won a lottery, would be the panasonic toughbook line, but it's been ages since I followed Panasonic, so ther would be a bunch more research in the making.
Get what you pay for
buy a mac then
My Precision Laptop is JUNK
It's cheaply built, been unreliable, and is utter garbage. This was a $2k laptop a few years ago.
Only ne problem
Of course they do!
I paid $2500 for a mac laptop...
"you get what you paid for" is a myth, sold by some marketer that loved to gouge people for a living, since ethics was unknown or too difficult for him to follow, much less understand...