back to article Lynch mob of bankers say they'll stump up cash to take Dell private

Dell is a little bit closer to selling itself off, with at least four major banks willing to put up the money, according to knowledgeable sources. The rumour, reported by Reuters, was enough to send shares in the PC firm up over 7 per cent in New York trading yesterday. Dell is supposedly looking for private equity buyers to …

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  1. wowfood

    How can four well known banks have enough money to buy dell? I thought they were all bankrupt, if they're now rich enough to buy a company, perhaps they could pay back all the tax payers money that was invested into them.

    1. Turtle

      @wowfood: What Bankers Do For A Living.

      Note the following passage: "Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Barclays and RBC are all willing to finance any buyout of the firm, according to the loquacious yet anonymous sources, who also speculated that a deal could be done soon, but they're not sure." That tells us that the banks are not buying Dell for themselves, but that they are willing to finance the deal if someone else wants to buy Dell.

      "Lending money" (and getting interest payments from it) is pretty much what bankers do for a living.

      As an aside, I would not be surprised if those "loquacious yet anonymous sources" turned out to be Michael Dell and members of his immediate family.

    2. Dave Perry

      If I remember correctly

      Barclays got its finance in tough times from further East and no government input

  2. M7S
    WTF?

    Banks willing to stump up the cash?

    At least one of those has already been bailed out by the UK taxpayer and still owes each of us quite a large amount, so it's a bit disingenuous of them to say they're putting up the money. I know it's usually depositor's/investor's funds anyway but in the current climate its strikes a poor note.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Banks willing to stump up the cash?

      "At least one of those has already been bailed out by the UK taxpayer ...."

      Are you sure ?

      1. Shagbag
        FAIL

        FAIL

        "Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Barclays and RBC"

        None of these was bailed out by the UK taxpayer.

    2. Paul Leigh
      Stop

      Re: Banks willing to stump up the cash?

      Thats not true, only one is UK based and they didn't take any bailout funds from the government,

    3. Xamol

      Re: Banks willing to stump up the cash?

      I don't think they were bailed out by UK taxpayers. Unless RBC a typo and is Scottish, not Canadian...

      1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

        Re: Re: Banks willing to stump up the cash?

        It is the Canadian bank, not RBS.

        C.

        1. M7S
          Facepalm

          Re: Banks willing to stump up the cash?

          Then I apologise. I misread it as RBS.

  3. Shagbag

    follow up

    National Audit Office statistics show that, despite popular opinion, the only banks "bailed out" in the financial crisis were:

    Northern Rock (£23bn) - the first. In Labour's heartland of NE England.

    Royal Bank of Scotland (£46bn) - the Scottish bank. Another votewinner for Labour.

    Lloyds TSB (£21bn) - only after its disastrous acquisition of Halifax-Bank of Scotland (HBOS) - another Scottish bank. Another votewinner for Labour.

    Bradford & Bingley (£9bn) - the only bank to bailed out that had no political upside for Labour.

    So "bailing out the banks" amounted to saving 4 banks from the Liquidator.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: follow up

      "Royal Bank of Scotland (£46bn) - the Scottish bank. Another votewinner for Labour."

      And Alex Salmond can have it back for £46b + interest. Good riddance - to both of 'em.

      1. Ally 1

        Re: follow up

        According to this they have already paid a lot back, and are still 82% owned by the government http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9245088/RBS-on-path-to-recover-as-it-pays-off-bail-out-loans.html

    2. Adam Connelly
      FAIL

      Re: follow up

      Does having "Scotland" in the name make it a Scottish bank? What about all their customers from other parts of the world, never mind the rest of the UK. I'm sure the UK government decided to bail it out because it was Scottish, and not because it was the biggest bank in the UK and Europe at the time.

      As for HBOS - are you missing the "Halifax" part of its name?

      Sounds a bit like when there was that massive oil spill recently, and a lot of the American press were going on about "British Petroleum", despite the fact their name is just "BP" now, and I really doubt they could be classed as a "British" company.

      But you're right, since there were only 4 banks bailed out, presumably only a few folk would have been affected if they'd gone under. It's not like these banks are very big or anything. This is another case of us nasty Scots being a drain on England and I sincerely apologise.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: follow up

        "Does having "Scotland" in the name make it a Scottish bank? "

        In both cases yes. HQ functions and services were Scottish based, management featured lots of Scotsmen (like Notsir Fred).

    3. The Godfather
      WTF?

      Re: follow up

      'So "bailing out the banks" amounted to saving 4 banks from the Liquidator.'

      So these were upsides/vote winners for Labour? Tosh...

      The alternatives at the time you may recall (if you were awake) were simply totally unpalatable - to everyone

  4. ledmil
    Pint

    What about QE??

    Although the bail out of UK banks is getting off topic I would point raise the thought that while a large number of the UK banks were not directly 'bailed out', how similar was the effect of quantitative easing in the UK banking sector to that of a bail out?

    In honesty I don't feel I have enough knowledge to answer that question, although I do have a suspicion of the answer. If the cynic in me is correct then it could be argued that more banks were effectively bailed out than official records show.

    Beer because thinking about the economy makes me reach for a nice pint :)

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: What about QE??

      Spot on! This, and similar schemes, are a direct consequence of the cheap money policies pursued by central banks over the last couple of years. It's supposed to lead to more responsible lending except that it isn't: small companies are being frozen out by the banks. Given that Dell has around $ 2 bn in cash there's a 10 % instant return just begging to be had.

  5. mIRCat
    Childcatcher

    What can I get for a tenner?

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