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Michael Dell To Buy Dell Inc.
awarrenfells writes "After a shareholder vote, Michael Dell is expected to buy out and take Dell Inc. private. This move comes in the wake of plans to move Dell into position as an enterprise computing provider, but some analysts state this move may have come too late, much of the target market being taken by IBM and HP already."
Nerval's Lobster provides some more details at Slash Cloud: "[T]he final buyout price was $13.75 a share, which includes a 13-cent-a-share “special dividend.” All told, that puts the deal’s price at $24.9 billion. In order to reach this point, Dell and Silver Lake had to fend off activist investor Carl Icahn and investment firm Southeastern Asset Management, which made their own combined play for a restructured capitalization. In a series of public letters, Icahn argued that Dell’s privatization proposal undervalued the company, and—at least until the beginning of September—made it very clear that he was willing to fight things out in court. By convincing the shareholders that his plan is the best route forward, Dell avoids what could have devolved into a very protracted and messy battle. Michael Dell wants to focus the majority of the company’s efforts on services, essentially remaking it into a tech firm more along the lines of IBM."
We need more CEOs with egos tied to their companies. At least they don't just loot them and run...
He's getting Dell.
Technoli
"Michael Dell wants to focus the majority of the company’s efforts on services, essentially remaking it into a tech firm more along the lines of IBM."
Problem is, IBM committed to that approach years ago, in a different world. I'm not sure that would work today, given how long traction would take and how things will continue to evolve in the mean time. You can't commoditize this kind of thing, after all.
I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders
If you own(ed) part of Dell in the past, how's this impact you?
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
Now YOU control the destiny of DELL, as it should be (like Microsoft &/or Ford Motor Inc. - they're examples of companies where the ownership NEVER LOST CONTROL, because THEIR NAMES WAS ON IT (meaning they have a stake in it along with their reputation)), instead of venture capitalists (who *MAY* have their own "hidden agenda" ala buy it up to sell it off into dismantled separate parts as corporate raiders are wont to do), or "1,000,000 bosses" via the biggest setup insider trading rigged craptable there is - the "stock market" (they ought to call it the craptable instead).
* I, for one, wish you good luck!
APK
P.S.=> This is a good thing to see imo - after all: The guy started the company himself, iirc, from a college dormitory no less, & PROBABLY didn't like what he saw going on per the above (as only a PARTIAL set of possibles that would upset me too)...
... apk
Didn't have any problem when I used them ~5 years ago. Not sure how they are now but if you are just running Linux/windows I found them fine and their support was good (in europe at the time anyways). We still had Sun boxes kicking around for special needs but otherwise we were commodity. With a SAN setup and most if not all data living on disk arrays the servers take a back seat somewhat. You might die but you won't lose data which was the biggest thing in internal IT services were I worked and likely everywhere. If corporate email has to do go down for a day that is one thing if it comes back up but loses your 20k message archive you'll get lined up and shot. Having a warm standby for almost everything is good enough for a lot of things. There are exceptions of course, banking systems, webcentric businesses etc but the vast majority of companies are Twitter with nothing to sell but bytes on a wire.
I work for a company that makes a Software-as-a-Service product. Our main sales channel is via OEMs like Dell. With hardware margins in the toilet the OEMs are all trying to realign themselves as 'service vendors' but they're not having much luck. It's my experience that it's very difficult to realign a sales team used to asking "Would you like a case and an SSD drive upgrade?" to one that sells high-margin services. The type of salesperson you need is much more expensive & sophisticated. You need to invest millions in training, marketing and support. Can be done of course (witness IBM) but it's a long, expensive process.
When will Dell (as a company) stop kissing Microsoft's ass and make a "N" line of machines ready for Linux that actually costs LESS than the Microsoft Tax model?
The company has been stuck in idle for years and is now in reverse due to macro trend from desktops/laptops to tablets. The oft-repeated claims from private equity guys is that a company has a better chance to succeed if it doesn't have to deal with the demands of being a public company. Demands like growth, profitability, aka success. I don't get it. Maybe they can enact longer-term business plans that would torpedo the stock price if it were a public company...but isn't the idea of every public company to maximize the long term value of shareholders?
Will this be the end of commodity PC's for the masses? Seems like there is not much choice left then.
We need more CEOs with egos tied to their companies. At least they don't just loot them and run...
I get the sentiment and there is a degree of truth there but here is a counterexample: Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC
Always practice due diligence. Even if someone's name is on the sign, even if the founders are still running the place.
No the Delicious Irony is Apple is giving money back to shareholders...to protect its share price. When it should be doing something exciting with that money.
And before Google, much of the target market had been taken by Alta Vista. And the NFL had a lock on pro football. And Sony had a lock on portable entertainment devices. And Microsoft on operating systems. HP on printers. Ford/GM/Chrysler.
I know - a company I worked for got bought by Dell a couple years ago. We watched as benefits got wiped, and the switch to a new platform meant WORSE service for our clients. A bunch of us jumped ship.
Dell is positioning itself as a enterprise computing provider just when the consumer market is taking off. Where are its Meego Phones; Chromebooks and *Next Generation PC*...the phone space is not the only place that can be innovative. Dell strength was logistics how about they get back to that only supplying interesting products.
lots of embedded systems are running off of X86 and X86-64 pc hardware some are just an PC box with usb based IO boards / dongles.
Afaik, Mr. Bill Gates ("King Billy" as I call him out of respect) & the Ford family itself (descendants of Mr. Henry Ford himself) STILL retain 51% or better control of voting stock.
Done thus?
Yes (afaik @ least): You can still be "publicly traded", but not be "publicly held" (meaning controlled, & especially by others) - via 51%++ or better control of voting stock, which is what I meant - I figured most of you would KNOW that, but instead you're forcing me to explain this in detail.
(Correct me IF I am 'off/wrong' here as to who owns what %-age of the stocks, preferred or common, for voting purposes & control...).
Once you have that? It's hard to "overrule" it, being forced to "compromise" by others or blocks of others pooling together in other stockholders.
Especially with REAL stock (preferred) vs. bullshit common-stock (that's NOT as legally secured by FAR, by way of comparison, as in the case of bankruptcy Ch 13 iirc from my Business Law I/II courses 20++ yrs. back during my 1st degree (MIS)).
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* In fact - This guy (Chris Mattern (191822)) http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4204445&cid=44831615 HIT ON WHAT I MEANT exactly & "2nd's my motion" in fact (but /.'s STUPID delay on us AC posters stops me from posting it before he did here).
Very unfortunate the rest of you trolls don't have these concepts mastered (which tells me a LOT about you in fact).
(Man - I shouldn't HAVE to explain this, but apparently, I do: It's practically an indictment of the US educational system, or your own stupidity/laziness, take your pick, that you don't KNOW this stuff!).
APK
P.S.=> So, yes - I DO *think* that's what Mr. Dell wants here in fact:
I.E./E.G. - To guide the company HIMSELF, not having to deal with potentially interfering others (Icahn & SAM), who are probably no better than most "corporate raiders" are, buying into a place to bust it up & sell it off for more than the entire body is estimated to be worth, albeit, via sale of the parts, only (hoping to get MORE than the whole sale, the sum being 'greater' in the parts, than the whole is) - to "their kind"? What Mr. Dell built BY HAND, is no more than an item in a stock-portfolio (would bug me too were it MY company I started also)
... apk
Speaking of which, Steve Jobs must be laughing in his tomb. Dell should "re-embourse the shareholders and close the shop".
While he is returning money to shareholders he is not shutting down Dell. Its going private, its not going to be beholden to the quarterly desires of Wall Street. Dell is probably better of this way.
I haven't heard much about the relationship between Dell and the NSA, but it's clear that there is one. Snowden worked for Dell, and Dell makes servers and VPN gear. Dell also acquired Perot Systems. Given all the NSA shenanigans and people running as fast as they can from systems with compromised security, it would seem that Dell has another significant obstacle between them and the cloud services model they think they need to move toward.
It would *actually* be ironic if Apple was not still growing their cash position, even when giving back a dividend.
But they're doing both.
...But in context of this article they didn't buy Dell...or Netflix...or Blah blah blah, While their profits shrink, Market Share (and sales in case of its iPad/Mac) shrink, Gross Margin compressed. There response has been to over promise and under deliver. The result the iPhone 5C and 5S I think they speak for themselves.
1st: I did ask for others to fill me in on "who owns how much of. or what type" of stock, so thanks on that note.
2nd: As far as common voting stock vs. preferred? Just as I said - a common b.s. stockholder has voting rights as YOU rightly note, but if the company goes "belly up"? YOU get squat in the liquidation!
(OR very little after secured creditors "get theirs", 1st: This is Business Law 101-102 iirc, & it's been 3++ decades for me on this mind you!)
* THUS - for the bottom-line (money)? Common stock truly is, bullshit stock - as there is LITTLE "safety" in it!
(At least as far as I am personally concerned! More of a "gambler's mentality" would be involved, risking one's monies).
Especially what-with companies being treated like cards in a playing hand/portfolio item ONLY nowadays & for decades now - ala "churn 'em & BURN 'em" (corporate raider style) For the MAIN GOAL: Dividends payouts (that's what an investor's in the game for, after all).
Raiders from hostile take-overs often "burn" a company to the GROUND (& unless found to be in GROSS misconduct doing so, but there's ways to cover up THAT?) - they get paid with preferred stock & golden parachute bonuses & severances: Rest? LOL, a dim *maybe*...
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Yes - I knew that as far as "voting stock" & common type, but again: Preferred type's more like a bond, & has more of a guarantee on it (by far, especially in liquidation & payouts - the REAL TRUE "bottom-line"... since, after all: It's YOUR money on the line/wire!).
Lastly:
I don't follow it anymore as far as "statistics" of who owns how much of what, so once more: Thanks for the requested input/data I asked for on King Billy!
APK
P.S.=> I don't follow those stats (anymore @ least), as I run my own business & don't waste monies on a gamblers' crap table in the "stock market" (fixed/rigged like hell just like casino craptables, via insider trading etc.) & instead, reinvesting in "my own show" instead. I haven't reviewed this material, in decades, since 1985 or so iirc (almost 30 yrs. not 20 as I initially stated (good review))... apk
I think Michael Dell is going to lose himself, and his investors, lots of money. Michael Dell realized that Intel and Microsoft would do the engineering, and the third party companies, like Dell, would only focus on building computers for low cost. Nothing else. Then the contract manufacturing industry in China rose up. Apple realized that companies like Dell were not needed at all. I wondered why Microsoft, Intel, and AMD didn't get rid of the manufacturers, and contract it out directly, like Apple did.
It's almost like that disease that Lou Gehrig got. I thought, what are the odds of that.
So for years, everyone bitches that Apple doesn't give dividends and doesn't do stock buybacks...
...and Steve Jobs told them to Jump, and did so because Apple was a growth stock not a value stock, buybacks/dividends are what you do with a value stock.
That YOU see my point later in your other post here -> http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4204445&cid=44831615
* Your wiseass-ness aside + "Bottom-line" on THIS reply of yours though?
Everyone KNOWS who really still OWNS & yes, REALLY RUNS MS (King Billy, of course).
APK
P.S.=> In fact, You hit on nearly EXACTLY my point here:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4204445&cid=44832135
Which I elucidated further upon, there in that 2nd/lower link, JUST above!
(/. held me back from posting being an AC, or I would have explained it sooner)... apk
Well at least you canget to the ram. I bought a Ausu 501-a notebook and it had 4 gig of ram it was mid priced so I expected that. What I did not expect was that to upgrade it you would have to completely tear apart the whole machine. Al I wanted was to run a VM. I through it away and bought a new one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06-HlMu7DCY
Here -> http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4204445&cid=44831615 Especially vs. your trolling b.s. after he read my posts, this being the PRIME example thereof (of 3 or 4 here today on THIS topic) -> http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4204445&cid=44832135 alongside this especially -> http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4204445&cid=44833119 ...
(Chris understood in that FIRST link above, that yes, you can be publicly traded but STILL privately controlled via majority stock ownership, as well as the differences in preferred stock vs. common/voting stock, expounded on in more detail in the latter link).
* Additionally/Lastly: Everyone KNOWS who REALLY still OWNS & yes, REALLY RUNS MS (King Billy, of course).
APK
P.S.=> Hey - I haven't reviewed this material in over 3++ decades, & am honestly SURPRISED I recall it to the degree I do after SO long...I retained this & laws of contracts from B-Law I/II, the most, in fact, via my 1st of 2 degrees (MIS & later Comp. Sci., which I am "laboriously" plodding getting the Bachelor's in!
However: I've found, personally, that I don't *really* need it due to decades of hands-on professional experience as both a network engineer & software engineer since 1994 professionally)!
Still - Even though I'm LONG past the Associates there, 90/120 cr. hours into the Bachelors of Science in CS, long past 60 cr. hr. Associates (taking my time though for the reasons noted above & I run a business too, takes a LOT of my time away from pursuits in "academia") - I am happy, overall, to KNOW I retained what I learned is all, mostly (especially from a long earlier longer degree earlier)... apk
and give the money back to the shareholders.
I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders
Yeah! Those 109,000 employees can just go fuck themselves.
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-203937.html
And at the Gartner Symposium and ITxpo97 here today, the CEO of competitor Dell Computer added his voice to the chorus when asked what could be done to fix the Mac maker. His solution was a drastic one.
"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," Michael Dell said before a crowd of several thousand IT executives.
I'm sure Michael Dell really really cared about those thousands of Apple employees too. No one is shutting down, but as a high-profile public figure, he ought to have thought twice before he said shit that was destined come back to bite him.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Fiona Apple doesn't have that kind of money, does she?
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Imagine... an auto company ran by the un-dead!
That was GM from about 1973 to 2009.
Crash testing might be either really good, or very bad, depending on perspective.
Their rack servers, desktops, and even laptops seem a lot better than they were 5 years ago. We're back on Dell at my company, for the most part.
is dell still buying dell with some money borrowed from microsoft, or is that off?