Dell Technologies To Go Public Again

Dell Technologies announced that it is once again looking to go public (the company, then just DELL, went private in 2013). The company intends to exchange outstanding V tracking stock for Class C common stock of Dell Technologies or an optional cash choice. This will bring common stock of Dell Technologies to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company has already reached an agreement with its Special Committee of independent directors about the exchange.

Dell Technologies announced that it is once again looking to go public (the company, then just DELL, went private in 2013). The company intends to exchange outstanding V tracking stock for Class C common stock of Dell Technologies or an optional cash choice. This will bring common stock of Dell Technologies to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company has already reached an agreement with its Special Committee of independent directors about the exchange.

Dell has had an interesting track record, as far as its position private and public, over its 34 years of operation. It started out as a relatively small company selling IMB compatible PCs and quickly grew to such a large company that it made it onto the Fortune 500 list, peaking at number 51. Around 2007 the company announced a Dell 2.0 approach where it downsized, lost some market share, and then was bought back to once again become private, the largest tech buyback at the time. While it was a private company it acquired the software and storage company EMC, and became Dell Technologies, with its enterprise assets changing to Dell EMC (the name it is commonly referred to now). The merger of Dell and EMC was the largest tech merger in history making Dell Technologies the largest privately held tech company.

Dell Technologies has seen strong revenue growth over the last few years, gaining ground in several areas including taking the top spots in server and HCI by revenue. Building off of this momentum, the company is looking to exchange each share of its Class V tracking stock for 1.3655 shares of Dell Technologies Class C common stock. Holders of the Class V stock can also elect to take a $109/per share cash consideration, a 29%  premium to the Class V share closing price prior to announcement. Based on this, Dell Technologies, excluding the Class V common stock, had a pre-transaction equity value of $48.4 billion and a pro forma fully diluted equity value of $61.1 – $70.1 billion. The Class V stockholders will own up to 31% of Dell Technologies (depending on how many choose the cash option).

Anyone that follows the goings on of Dell would have to wonder how this affects VMware. Though Dell owns 81% of VMware’s common stock, for now it is slated to remain an independent company that will still be traded as it was. VMware has elected to declare an $11 billion cash dividend pro rata to all VMware stockholders. This means that Dell will get about $9 billion that it will use to finance the those that choose the cash consideration or pay down debt. 

Dell Technologies Investor Relations

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