Dell likely to boost buyout offer – report

PanARMENIAN.Net - Michael Dell, whose quest to take Dell Inc. private is threatened by bids from Blackstone Group LP (BX) and Carl Icahn, is likely to boost his offer as he strives to transform his company from fallen personal-computer leader into a contender in tablets and cloud computing, Bloomberg reported.

Blackstone and financier Icahn made offers that exceeded the $24.4 billion buyout bid from founder Dell and Silver Lake Management LLC, according to people with knowledge of the matter. While Dell’s board may say today whether the new proposals are reasonably likely to be superior, it could also say it needs more time to study the offers, one person said.

The unexpected challenges to the original bid, which came as the company struggled to catch up with a new wave of nimbler competitors in mobile computing and business services, mean Dell and Silver Lake may have to respond with a better proposal. Michael Dell, who founded the PC provider in his Texas dorm room in 1984, needs to ensure majority control so he can pursue his plan to retool the struggling company as a maker of data-center gear and software for corporations - without the scrutiny of public investors.

At least five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg earlier this month saw the buyout group increasing the bid to as much as $14.90 to $15 a share.

Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, is also seeking growth in another area where it’s been outpaced - the networking equipment, storage computers and software that run cloud- computing programs that feed those millions of devices with data.