$65-billion Dell, EMC merger gets past last hurdle

#Dell Inc. and #EMC Corp. are set to complete on Wednesday the biggest technology merger in history, a $65-billion deal that will bring together two leading providers of data-center and corporate computing equipment as they chase faster growth. The companies last week received regulatory approval from China’s Ministry of Commerce, the last major hurdle in finalizing the deal, Dell and EMC said. The combined company will begin operating under the new name #DellTechnologies. Together, the companies said their annual sales could reach $74 billiion. EMC reported revenue of $24.8 billion in 2015, up one percent from the prior year. Dell and EMC are joining forces to create a broader product lineup — from servers to storage devices and key software services — amid intensifying competition. Hardware companies are under escalating pressure from cloud-based offerings that enable customers to rent computing power from #Amazon .com Inc. or Google, rather than buying and maintaining their own systems from the likes of Dell and EMC. "This is an historic moment for both Dell and EMC," @MichaelDell, who will be chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Technologies, said in the statement. "Our investments in R&D and innovation, along with our 140,000 team members around the world, will give us unmatched scale, strength and flexibility, deepening our relationships with customers of all sizes." Dell, which is privately held, was publicly traded until 2013, when founder Michael Dell partnered with private equity investors to buy his namesake company for nearly $25 billion. The company has its headquarters near Austin, Texas. Dell is buying EMC and its many wholly and partially owned subsidiaries including cybersecurity firms RSA Security LLC, software development company Pivotal Software Inc. and virtualization software vendor VMware Inc. EMC, based in Hopkinton, Mass., is the largest technology company in Massachusetts. EMC, founded in 1979, employs 53,000 worldwide and 9,000 in Massachusetts. Longtime EMC chief executive, Joe Tucci, will retire as part of the sale to Dell. He is expected to collect nearly $24 million in cash and stock for selling the company, according to regulatory filings. EMC shareholders will receive $24.05 per share in cash and a tracking stock linked to a portion of EMC’s economic interest in #VMware Inc., its majority-owned software business. Shares of the tracking stock, which will have the ticker "DVMT," are expected to begin trading on Sept. 7.

http://m.providencejournal.com/news/20160905/65-billion-dell-emc-merger-gets-past-last-hurdle