Friday, September 8, 2017

Michael Dell extols the benefits of going private, a year after Dell-EMC mega merger

SAN FRANCISCO — It's been a year since #Dell consumed #EMC in the biggest tech merger ever, and @MichaelDell was in a celebratory mood.  The world's largest privately-controlled technology company on Thursday reported the fruits of its labors: fiscal second-quarter revenue of $19.3 billion, up 48% from a year ago, and thousands of new small- and mid-sized business customers. It also posted a $1 billion operating loss from non-cash expenses associated with "purchase of assets" — namely, Dell's move to go private in 2012 and its acquisition of EMC.  One of the beauties of being the controlling shareholder in a company, is you can do whatever you want to do. MICHAEL DELL Behind a rallying cry of "Go big, win big," the merging of seven companies that formed today's Dell Technologies — which employs 138,000 people — fulfilled Dell's vision of hurtling his namesake company into an age of Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. "We're innovating like a start-up with the scale and reach of a global technology powerhouse," Dell told USA TODAY in a phone interview, citing two byproducts of the $67 billion deal.  The billionaire, who started his PC business from his dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin, isn't done shopping: The behemoth continues to snap up companies such as Apteligent, which helps mobile app makers measure performance, and ManyWho, a cloud development platform. "As Dell likes to say, he is looking for Picassos in the basement," says Matt Eastwood, an analyst at market researcher IDC. It's also investing $4.5 billion in research and development annually. (Apple's R&D budget, by comparison, was $10.4 billion last year, its its most ever.) An essential deal The Dell-EMC merger fit a blueprint established by Dell. He took his company private in a $25 billion deal in October 2013 after a bruising, year-long battle with activist investor Carl Icahn. The showdown was essential to the survival of the company, Dell insisted, after it embarked on a shape-shifting mission to diversify into data centers, cloud computing, servers, software, services, security and system management.  What followed was a reinvention of the company that made its name — and fortune — selling personal computers in a world increasingly beholden to smartphones and tablets. It was a challenge Dell relished after feeling handcuffed by the expectations on a public company undergoing a significant makeover. "One of the beauties of being the controlling shareholder in a company, is you can do whatever you want to do," Dell said. To be sure, tech mega-mergers are treacherous endeavors. Consider HP-Autonomy, Microsoft-Nokia and other big deals that backfired, leading to massive write-offs and layoffs. Early returns on the deal are generally good. Analyst Eastwood says Dell Technologies has succeeded in three of its four major businesses: storage, servers, PCs, and infrastructure software.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2017/09/07/michael-dells-birthday-wish-dell-emc/606385001/

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