Well! Looks Like Redmond Company on a Hardware Hunt.
Check out this article…
Microsoft Corp is in discussions to invest between $1 billion US and $3 billion of mezzanine financing in a buyout of Dell Inc, CNBC cited unidentified sources as saying on Tuesday.
Private equity outfit Silver Lake Partners is trying to finalize a bidding group to take the world’s No. 3 PC maker private, and has opened discussions with potential equity partners, sources familiar with the matter have said.
Dell also has formed a special committee to take a close look at any potential deal on the table, multiple sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. If successful, it would be one of the largest corporate buyouts since before the global financial crisis.
Microsoft, which accelerated its foray into computer hardware in 2012 with the launch of the Surface tablet, will provide the capital in the form of mezzanine financing according to CNBC, which is a hybrid of debt and equity.
Microsoft and Dell both declined to comment on the CNBC report. Shares in Dell gained climbed 2% to $13.08 in late morning trade.
by Tornto Sun via Reuters
This From thespec.com on 01/22/2013…
Microsoft joins talks to buy Dell
Microsoft has joined the negotiations to buy struggling computer maker Dell, according to media reports.
Both CNBC and The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft Corp. may invest some of the money needed to take Dell Inc. private, after 25 years as a publicly traded company. Tuesday’s stories cited unidentified people familiar with the negotiations.
If Microsoft joins in a Dell buyout, CNBC and the Journal say the software maker would contribute $1 billion to $3 billion. That amount would make Microsoft Corp. a minority investor in a complex deal expected to cost $23 billion to $27 billion if it’s completed.
Microsoft declined to comment on the reports.
Word that Dell Inc. is interested in selling to a group led by buyout firm Silver Lake Partners first surfaced last week. Dell’s stock price has climbed about 20 per cent since then. The stock rose 33 cents, or 2.6 per cent, to $13.17 in Tuesday’s early afternoon.
Dell, which is based in Round Rock, Texas, hasn’t said whether it’s interested in selling. Going private, though, would enable the company to overhaul its operations without having to meet Wall Street’s demands for higher quarterly earnings.
Dell, the second largest U.S. computer maker behind Hewlett-Packard Co., is one of Microsoft’s biggest partners. Among other things, Microsoft licenses its Windows operating system to Dell’s personal computer makers.
Like many other PC makers, Dell’s revenue has been sliding as the popularity of smartphones and tablet computers divert consumer and business spending from laptop and desktop machines.
By becoming a part-owner in Dell, Microsoft would risk being viewed by HP and other PC makers as more of a rival than a partner. Microsoft already has rankled some of its PC makers by releasing a tablet computer called Surface that competes against their products.
So far, though, there has been little evidence indicating that the Surface is reshaping the market for computing devices.