back to article Dell goes private: Stock ceases trading, now Big Mike's baby once again

It's official: Dell is now a private company. Founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners have completed their acquisition of the firm in a deal valued at around $24.9bn. "Today, Dell enters an exciting new chapter as a private enterprise," Dell (the man) said in a canned statement. "Our 110,000 team members worldwide are …

COMMENTS

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  1. Franklin

    He didn't just liquidate the company and return the money to the shareholders?

    1. Mark Cathcart

      That depends how you look at it... he with partners essentially did by borrowing money against the assets and the future earnings. The money was then given to the shareholders.

      As an bona fide Dell Executive and (former) shareholder, I'd have never been able to make such comments in the past, in case they were misconstrued as financial insight and might get me jailed and fired. Now I just have to worry that Michael will fire me.

      I think it's a great move, you can be cynical but there are a lot of good things that will hopefully play out. ++Mark.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Now I just have to worry that Michael will fire me."

        Not if you keep sucking up in public ..

  2. bill 27

    AHHH MANNNN COME OHNNNN!

    Does this mean my free lifetime tech support sticker on the back of my PC's Limited 8Mhz 286 isn't any good anymore? I've been meaning to call and ask about help with snort and netbsd and pf.

  3. bill 27

    What!

    Does this mean my lifetime free support, I have a sticker on the back of the AT style metal case, from the PC's Limited 8Mhz 286 is no good? I've been meaning to call and ask them about the interactions of netbsd, snort, and pf.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Many years ago...

    Many years ago we bought the very latest top of the range Dell to run an early PC-based PCB design program.

    A couple of weeks later, I got a phone call. From America (not so common in those days). "Hi, I'm Michael Dell, and you've just bought one of our computers. What are you doing with it?"

    I told him, he thanked me, and that was it, but I was seriously impressed all the same.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: Many years ago...

      "Hi, I'm Michael Dell, and you've just bought one of our computers. What are you doing with it?"

      Two possible answers

      "PrOn ath the BBS"

      or

      "PrOn on Usenet"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Many years ago...

        I'd just spent £10k on a PC and some software, I don't think either of those answers would have gone down too well with the management.

        12.5MHz 286 with VGA colour monitor - bleeding edge technology of the time!

  5. Thorfkin

    I agree this is an excellent move on Dell's part. How could Mike D possibly make the right long-term decisions for his company and customers while constantly facing down shareholder demands to meet quarterly profit goals. Going private will make the company better.

  6. Jay 2
    Meh

    Good for Mr Dell I'm sure, not sure about his staff though...

    I look after 300+ Dell servers, and the odd DRAC dropout aside they're generally OK kit. So I hope this means that Dell (the company) will continue to shove out servers.

    On the other hand due to personal experience, I hate those vulture capitalist scumbags Silver Lake with a passion. So if there are any Dell staffers reading, get ready for redundancies as that's SL's MO when it comes to making money.

  7. M. B.

    Hoping for...

    ...significant R&D investments in the short term and better communication about roadmaps and how far along things are (cough *ocarina* cough).

  8. Down not across

    Showtime!

    Finally the deed is done. And given his recent windfall from Netflix, I doubt Carl is too bothered.

    Now its time for Mike to deliver. Will be interesting to see how his vision (whatever it might be) will pan out.

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