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Dell hires Evercore to find higher bids over buyout plans

According to reports, Dell has hired Evercore to see if better buyout offers can be put on the table.
Written by Charlie Osborne, Contributing Writer

Dell has hired Evercore as an advisory and testing service in relation to buyout plans.

dell buyout private firm shareholder lawsuit evercore investment bank
(Credit: Dell)

The computing firm may announce this month that it is going to be made private by Silver Lake Partners, and, as a result, has asked Evercore to advise a committee of the board and test the waters in terms of getting a better offer on the table, according to Bloomberg.

It is speculated that Silver Lake Partners has brought on board Credit Suisse, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, RBC, and Barclays to try to finance the transaction.

Citing two sources with knowledge of the matter, the publication stated that the investment bank is being used to run the "go-shop" period — in other words, the time allotted to make sure shareholders of a company get the best deal out of a potential transaction.

This type of process isn't without its critics, but if a buyout becomes official, it may be that hiring Evercore may help lessen the risk of shareholder lawsuits by giving other buyout firms time to make a competing offer, if they wish.

The Texas-based firm's value is estimated at between $22 and $24 billion due to Dell's stance as the third-largest PC maker. However, JP Morgan has advised Dell on a buyout rate of only $19 billion.

According to the publication, share value has dropped by over 20 percent in the last year due to increased competition by rival tablet makers, including Apple and Samsung, and the drop in PC consumer purchases — although when the news of the potential buyout broke, shares jumped by 10 percent and had to be held after triggering a circuit breaker.

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