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October 8, 2015

Dell and EMC in Merger Talks, Report Says

Alison Diana

Dell is reportedly in talks to merge with EMC, according to published reports.

Rumors and uncertainty have swirled around $50-billion storage behemoth EMC. Facing the unscheduled but certainly upcoming retirement of longtime chairman and CEO Joe Tucci, pundits have wondered what form the EMC federation — including EMC, VMware, and Pivotal — would take without his leadership. The company has been under attack from activist investors such as Elliot Management, which want more value for shareholders. And there have been suggestions, firmly rejected by Tucci, that EMC should spin off VMware so it can operate as a separate company.

Dell and EMC are now in talks to merge, although whether this is a complete merger or involves only parts of EMC (such as VMware) is uncertain, according to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news on Wednesday evening. EMC’s shares were up more than 9.4 percent in after-hours trading. Dell, of course, went private in 2013.

Reportedly Dell is discussing financing options with banks so it could make an all-cash offer, Reuters said.

Tucci was scheduled to retire from EMC in February which did not happen, in part because there was no replacement named.

Dell World will be held in Austin from Oct. 20 through Oct. 22. EMC (NYSE: EMC) reports its earnings on Oct. 21. Update: On Thursday morning, EMC’s stock opened at $25.96, up 0.15.

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