Dell to go private?

[techs]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100378030

Dell in Talks to Go Private, Shares Surge

Dell is in talks with private equity firms on a potential buyout, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, confirming reports that sent shares in the world's No. 3 PC maker soaring 13 percent to nearly a eight-month high.

The firms are now holding discussions on a deal with billionaire Chief Executive and founder Michael Dell, who owns about 14 percent of the company, according to one source with knowledge of the matter.

The Wall Street Journal cited unidentified sources as saying TPG and Silver Lake could team up on an offer, possibly in conjunction with other investors such as pension funds. JPMorgan Chase was also involved in the negotiations, it added.

The first source told Reuters any potential deal could be structured as a management-led buyout with Michael Dell at the helm.

 

[Kaido]

Hmm, this could be interesting. They just bought Wyse and Sonicwall, two vendors that I like. And Dell is great for business machines. Hmm...

 

[postmortemIA]

I like. Go private = focus on products and customers and not shareholders.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

And Dell is great for business machines. Hmm...

I used to think that...

That was until we have been waiting since 12/15 for a replacement part for a M6600. The expected delivery date? 2/2.


(they can diaf)

 

[CPA]

I like. Go private = focus on products and customers and not shareholders.

Sorry, I don't get this. In order to placate shareholders, a company needs to have good EPS, among other things. In order to have a good EPS, a company must focus on products and customers.

 

[postmortemIA]

Sorry, I don't get this. In order to placate shareholders, a company needs to have good EPS, among other things. In order to have a good EPS, a company must focus on products and customers.

The problem is that corporations start thinking one quarter at the time. Increasing share price at all and any cost. Long term goals become just a nice wish list.

 

[lxskllr]

Sorry, I don't get this. In order to placate shareholders, a company needs to have good EPS, among other things. In order to have a good EPS, a company must focus on products and customers.

That's the theory, but not how it works. Companies will try to maximize short term profits at the expense of long term viability when they have to placate shareholders. There's a lot of ways that can be done, and few of them are in the consumers best interest. I avoid buying products made by publicly traded companies as much as conveniently possible, but it's difficult.

 

[Phokus]

Sorry, I don't get this. In order to placate shareholders, a company needs to have good EPS, among other things. In order to have a good EPS, a company must focus on products and customers.

Man, you are really bad at figuring out how capitalism really works.

 

[Wyndru]

I'm going off on a rant here, sorry.

I still don't understand why HP and Lenovo have taken over Dell's lead. The school districts I work for now buy only Lenovo and HP, and we have had a lot of issues with both. A lot of RMA's the last 2 years unfortunately.

Also their driver/support pages are a nightmare, Lenovo requires model numbers, part numbers and serial numbers that are nearly impossible to find on the machine, and HP's driver site is all screwed up. Half the time the drivers are incorrect and you need to google search their forums to find out where someone else found the right ones (usually under another product).

Dell on the other hand has a service tag that makes finding everything easy, and they also provide enterprise drivers which makes it so easy for MDT, just grab the cab files and import every model, done. Why can't the big 2 do this? Lastly I miss my Dell self dispatch (although I guess HP also has this and doesn't require a certification to use it).

 

[ultimatebob]

Sorry, I don't get this. In order to placate shareholders, a company needs to have good EPS, among other things. In order to have a good EPS, a company must focus on products and customers.

It makes sense to me... rather than focusing on quarterly profits, they can work on more long term R&D project to make a product more revolutionary than evolutionary.

Who knows, perhaps they might be even be able to design a Windows 8 touch screen laptop that doesn't suck... we can dream, right?

 

[ultimatebob]

I used to think that...

That was until we have been waiting since 12/15 for a replacement part for a M6600. The expected delivery date? 2/2.


(they can diaf)

Ouch... I bet that you're wishing that you ponied up for the Platinum service support contract with the guaranteed four hour hardware replacement turnaround time!

Seriously, it's a cool thing to have if you can afford it... they basically have drivers on call to hand deliver the parts from their warehouse to get them there on time.

 

[Wyndru]

Ouch... I bet that you're wishing that you ponied up for the Platinum service support contract with the guaranteed four hour hardware replacement turnaround time!

Seriously, it's a cool thing to have if you can afford it... they basically have drivers on call to hand deliver the parts from their warehouse to get them there on time.

Even with the standard warranty (self dispatch)...in the past decade that I have dealt with Dell, I VERY rarely have ever waited for more than overnight on a replacement (on items still in warranty). I think literally only 2 or 3 times has there been a delay and one of the delays was actually caused by a train derailment.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Dell warranty sucks anymore. What good is "on-site" service when they refuse to do it and expect the end user to rebuild the PC?

And whoever builds their power supplies for their 900 series computers sucks too.

Oh well. They are good for one thing. Keeps me busy at work as people get sick of them and ask us to fix their broken computers

 

[DesiPower]

Dell has pretty much tried to make EVERYTHING and FAILED at EVERYTHING except for LTs and DTs, so no thanks, you can keep, another failed IPO like Facebook. Also absolutely the worst work environments possible. Its a sinking failboat.

 

[ultimatebob]

This story kinda helps this buyout rumor make sense:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/22/microsoft-joins-talks-to-buy-out-dell-shareholders/

A Microsoft/Dell merger kinda makes sense. Microsoft is having problems getting manufacturers to promote their new Windows 8 products, and buying a hardware manufacturer like Dell allows them to have a complete end to end solution like Apple.

 

[techs]

This story kinda helps this buyout rumor make sense:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/22/microsoft-joins-talks-to-buy-out-dell-shareholders/

A Microsoft/Dell merger kinda makes sense. Microsoft is having problems getting manufacturers to promote their new Windows 8 products, and buying a hardware manufacturer like Dell allows them to have a complete end to end solution like Apple.

Microsoft+Dell?

I have a bad feeling about this.

 

[brianmanahan]

Dell has pretty much tried to make EVERYTHING and FAILED at EVERYTHING except for LTs and DTs, so no thanks, you can keep, another failed IPO like Facebook. Also absolutely the worst work environments possible. Its a sinking failboat.

um, this is the opposite of an IPO

 

[SlowSpyder]

This story kinda helps this buyout rumor make sense:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/22/microsoft-joins-talks-to-buy-out-dell-shareholders/

A Microsoft/Dell merger kinda makes sense. Microsoft is having problems getting manufacturers to promote their new Windows 8 products, and buying a hardware manufacturer like Dell allows them to have a complete end to end solution like Apple.

I wonder how the other major PC makers would feel about that. If I am HP, I don't think I would be happy about MS partnering with Dell and would start looking harder at other options, wheter if be PC OS options or looking to focus more on tablet/Andriod.

 

[TheSlamma]

Hmm, this could be interesting. They just bought Wyse and Sonicwall, two vendors that I like. And Dell is great for business machines. Hmm...

This is exactly their problem, they keep buying up everything they can and then they don't seem to know how to do anything with it once it's bought. They also got the appliance helpdesk system kace which is buried and impossible to find and they have a streaming desktop solution which can only be found on 2 year old youtube videos. Time to stop trying to be a master of none and get good at something again. Their LT's DT's and their Intel Servers have some good offerings.

I will hand dell one thing, their business & gov tech support is all in Dallas, so it shreds HP and IBM's tech support.

 

[Gibsons]

That's the theory, but not how it works. Companies will try to maximize short term profits at the expense of long term viability when they have to placate shareholders. There's a lot of ways that can be done, and few of them are in the consumers best interest. I avoid buying products made by publicly traded companies as much as conveniently possible, but it's difficult.

We need to increase profits this quarter, or else!

Hm... let's cut tech support and R&D's budget in half.

Win!

 

[FallenHero]

We need to increase profits this quarter, or else!

Hm... let's cut tech support and R&D's budget in half.

Win!

Thats exactly why I started buying Bosch tools. They invest a ton more then average back into the company.

 

[Torn Mind]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/05/us-dell-buyout-idUSBRE9140NF20130205
It has happened.

 

[DesiPower]

owner betting his own money, its really interesting. So he thinks that if he gets rid of the shareholders he can do something about the company? I hope he is right... I personally feel the workforce is also a HUGE problem, they need to diversify, they need to hire more non-Indians and make sure they are not bullied by Indians

 

[Phoenix86]

I'm happy to see this go through, less focus on quarterly results and stock prices ftw.

 

[dabuddha]

I used to think that...

That was until we have been waiting since 12/15 for a replacement part for a M6600. The expected delivery date? 2/2.


(they can diaf)

sooo did you get the part?