Michael Dell wins back his company

Big News Network.com Thursday 12th September, 2013

WASHINGTON - Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell, Thursday won shareholders
approval to his $25 billion buyout proposal together with an investment group led by
Silver Lake Partners, ending months of conflict over the fate of the ailing personal
computer maker.

Shareholders will receive a total of $13.88 per share: $13.75 for each share of common
stock held plus a special dividend worth 13 cents per share. Approval of the buyout
offer from founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners is based on a "preliminary vote
tally," Dell said in a statement.

Ending a 25-year run as a publicly traded company, post the buyout Dell will be delisted
and become a private company, enabling it to undergo restructuring without pressure
from shareholders. Shares of Dell are unchanged, at $13.85, in trading Thursday.

"I am pleased with this outcome and am energized to continue building Dell into the
industry's leading provider of scalable, end-to-end technology solutions," said Michael
Dell in a statement.

Michael Dell was present for Thursday's meeting, which was attended by around 100
people, lasted about 15 minutes. The meeting ended with light applause after the
approval, which came after three postponements, was announced.

In a conference call hosted after the announcement, Michael Dell, who serves as the
company's chairman, said he will begin a "multiyear" endeavor to expand into new
areas such as enterprise, cloud computing and security services.

"We plan to go back to our roots, focusing on the entrepreneurial spirit that made Dell
one of the fastest growing and most successful companies in history," he said.

Dell started selling PCs out of his dorm room while he was still a freshman at the
University of Texas. His company went public four years later.
Despite a slowdown in the PC market and a push toward new services, Dell Chief
Financial Officer Brian Gladden says the company remains committed to PCs. "We'll
continue to make investments to play a leadership role in the PC business," he says.

Last month, Dell reported a 72 percent drop in profit for the second quarter, as the
company cut prices to shore up computer sales.

Dell's stock has plunged by more than 40 percent since Michael Dell returned for a
second stint as CEO in 2007.

Michael Dell maintains that turning around the company will involve a painful
realignment that is likely to trim its earnings for another year or two.

As a result, he believes, the turnaround will be easier to pull off away from Wall Street
and its fixation on short-term results.

In February this year, Michael Dell had announced plans to buyout the company and
make it private but had met with fierce opposition from shareholders Southeastern
Asset Management and activist investor Carl Icahn. But on Monday in a letter to the
shareholders, Icahn called off his bitter battle to get the deal aborted even while
reiterating that the buyout offer had undervalued the company.

"I continue to believe that the price being paid by Michael Dell/Silver Lake to purchase
our company greatly undervalues it," Icahn said in a letter.

The buyout is expected to close by Nov. 1, and shares of Dell will continue to trade until
the deal closes. Michael Dell would own 75% of the company once the merger is
cleared, according to Gladden.

Dell and fellow PC companies have struggled in recent years as mobile devices such as
smartphones and tablets have eaten into its market.

Global PC shipments have fallen for five straight months the longest slump ever.

"The PC business is in a tough spot," says IDC analyst Bob O'Donnell. "We don't see
any rapid turnaround anytime soon."