Dell is currently considering a sale to VMware, the company it already controls thanks to its 80% stake, in an attempt to go public again using a reverse merger strategy.
The company's board of directors will meet next month to discuss various strategic moves, including a reverse merger, according to a CNBC report, which adds that the goal is to help owners earn income from their investments.
In 2013, Dell went from a publicly traded company to a privately held company after Michael Dell and the private equity firm Silver Lake, along with several other investors including Microsoft, bought the company for $24.4 billion. Microsoft provided a $2 billion loan to support the computer ecosystem.
Dell eventually bought EMC for $67 billion in 2015 and took 80% of VMware, which is now valued at $60 billion.
VMware, a public company, could buy Dell and then issue shares to existing private shareholders, only to sell them on the public market afterward, the person said. That way, Dell could be able to pay off at least some of its $50 billion in debt, he said.
One of the concerns that the reverse merger must address is the potential impact it could have on the business in the PC division.
Dell is now the third-largest PC maker in the world, with Gartner data showing that in the fourth quarter of 2017, the company sold a total of 10.8 million PCs for a 15.2% market share. That's up from the 10.7 million units sold in the same quarter a year earlier. For comparison, HP was the top seller with 16 million units sold during the quarter.
Dell, however, is highly unlikely to adjust its PC to embrace this strategic move, especially since the ultimate goal appears to be to generate revenue from investments in the company and pay down debt.
