Dell is going public again with tracking stock buyout

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: The move simplifies Dell's capital and ownership structure. Other options including a combination with VMware itself were reportedly considered but ultimately, all parties involved settled on going public once again.

Dell went private in 2013 on the back of a landmark deal with founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake, executing the largest privatization in the history of the technology industry. Now, the company is once again planning to go public.

In a press release on Monday, Dell said it aims to buy its own tracking stock as part of a deal valued at $21.7 billion. For each share of Dell Technologies Class V tracking stock, shareholders will receive 1.3665 shares of Dell Technologies Class C common stock – or $109 in cash. Dell says the offer of $109 represents a 29 percent premium over the Class V share closing price prior to the announcement.

VMWare’s board of directors (remember, Dell acquired EMC for $67 billion in 2015) has voted to declare an $11 billion cash dividend pro rata to all VMWare stockholders. Dell will use its proceeds of the dividend to fund the cash consideration for Class V stockholders.

VMware will maintain its independence as a separate publicly traded company while Dell Technologies will continue to own 81 percent of VMware common stock.

Michael Dell said unprecedented data growth is fueling the digital era of IT, adding that they are uniquely positioned with their portfolio of technologies and services to enable the digital, IT, security and workforce transformations of their customers.

“Most importantly, I remain deeply committed to this company and working with our world-class team to build the long-term value of Dell Technologies and its businesses.”

Dell’s founder, who owns 72 percent of Dell Technologies common shares, will continue to serve as chairman and CEO, we’re told.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/75322-dell-going-public-again-tracking-stock-buyout.html

 

[Uncle Al]

I was a big fan of Dell while I was in business. I used to have pre-configured units made for all my clients but as time went by they became more and more difficult to work with despite me filling thousands of orders each year. I also noticed when they cut back on the configuration options for on line units making them no better than the big box sellers. That was the unique thing about Dell that made them so appeal-able to me and my clients. If they can't recapture that mojo I see no reason to return ......

 

[mbrowne5061]

Just when I was starting to sign the praises for their product quality, this will inevitably send it back down into the 'trash' tier all over again.

 

[GeforcerFX]

I was a big fan of Dell while I was in business. I used to have pre-configured units made for all my clients but as time went by they became more and more difficult to work with despite me filling thousands of orders each year. I also noticed when they cut back on the configuration options for on line units making them no better than the big box sellers. That was the unique thing about Dell that made them so appeal-able to me and my clients. If they can't recapture that mojo I see no reason to return ......

I would say PBGA and the massive increase in iGPU performance caused a lot of that. They still offer other customizations like networking, RAM, and storage, but there pricing for all of it has always been crap(well for us none thousand order customers at least )