Dive Brief:
- Dell is reportedly in talks to buy data storage company EMC Corp, Reuters reports.
- Should the deal go through, it could be one of the biggest technology deals ever.
- EMC has been facing pressure from shareholder Elliott Management Corp.
Dive Insight:
EMC has reportedly been looking to make a change for over a year. In September 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported the company had held talks with Dell and HP. And just last August, there were reports that EMC was contemplating a deal under which it would be acquired by VMware. Recently, Elliott Management Corp. has been pressuring EMC to spin off its VMware Inc unit, a move EMC said it does not want to make. EMC has a market capitalization of about $50 billion.
Dell founder Michael Dell has been trying to transform his company into a provider of enterprise computing services over the last several years, and the purchase of EMC may help him in that effort. Two years ago, Dell was taken private by Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake,
"Being a private company has certainly allowed us to focus our future more on 3 years, 5 years, 10 years out and get away from the short-term orientation that public companies often find themselves in," Dell said recently.
According to International Data Corp, Dell currently ranks third in global PC shipments.
