Microsoft May Invest $1B-$3B In Dell Buyout

alexander_686 writes "We heard that Dell is in buyout talks with private equity firms. Now, the word is that Microsoft may invest one to three billion dollars in that buyout. For that amount of money, Microsoft isn't going for majority ownership, but it would be a significant stake. Dell is worth around $22-25 billion. Speculation is that investors would put up $5-7 billion in equity, borrowing the rest. As a point of reference, Michael Dell's stock is worth $3.6 billion."

Comments

proof

[aletterman]

that a fool and his money are soon parted.

eating his words

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Michael Dell shutting down the company and giving the money back to the shareholders??? :)

It would make sense

[cshark]

Microsoft has been dissecting Apples strategy of being a device and os company. Or perhaps they want to be IBM, which does the same thing? A Microsoft stake in Dell might mean an end to Studiobuntu Laptops, though. And I think that would be a shame. Those things are nice.

A marriage made in hell

[Anonymous Coward]

I say go for it. Those two companies deserve each other.

Microsoft needs Dell

[onyxruby]

Dell is the most loyal company to Microsoft of any of the OEM's and they always play ball. Their efforts on *nix support are minimal and they are legendary for the work they will do try to inspire you to run Windows. With Asian OEM's increasingly dis-enfranchised with Microsoft the need for a partner that isn't going go their own way is paramount.

I wouldn't say things are as bad as around a decade ago when Microsoft bailed out Apple to prevent their bankruptcy. That being said I think a fair argument can be made that Microsoft needs Dell more than Dell needs Microsoft. If your surprised about this investment you haven't been in the industry very long.

When You Absolutely, Positively...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Just sayin'."

When you absolutely, positively want to make sure people reading your post know you are a retard with nothing of value to add.

ring ring

[vlm]

ring ring
Dell support this is "John" how may I help you?
Ah hi John, this is Steve at microsoft I'd like to open a support ticket because I'm having trouble transferring $3B as part of a private equity buyout.
OK Steve while I do the needful opening a support ticket I have some tasks for you, I was wondering if you could reboot the computer.
Well John the problem is on your website, I'm trying to paypal you $3M and I'm getting an error message about ..
Please do the needful Steve and simply click the start button, then shutdown...
No John this is windows 8 there is no start button anymore
Oh so sorry Steve let me pull up the correct script... Ah I see you are needing to restore windows from your install partition, which will reinstall all the crapware and drivers and a unpatched version of windows from 2010 complete with 57 varieties of security hole, but we don't charge extra for that.
OK John (Steve humors John, and fumbles around for his iPad to use instead, pretending just so they can get past the script)
I'm not really sure where to go with this, other than it should probably end with "steve" from microsoft throwing a chair, or "developers develpers developers" or somesuch nonsense.

What would Michael Dell do?

[Anonymous Coward]

"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders,"

Regulators should never allow this

[bitt3n]

between Dell's unbeatable reputation for sleek, innovative, high-margin technological wizardry, and Microsoft's remarkable ability to bring such inimitable mix of elegant simplicity and raw sex-appeal to new markets as puts their rabid fan base into a swoon, every other player in the industry would doubtless close down and give the money back to their shareholders.