Dell Closes Deal to Acquire EMC

Privately owned PC manufacturer Dell has officially completed negotiations and formalized an agreement to acquire EMC, a publicly traded data storage provider. The deal is the largest tech acquisition in history, coming in at a staggering $67 billion.

The acquisition will be completed at a total of $33.15 per share of EMC. Of this, $24.05 per share is to be put up in cash, with the remainder tied to the stock market value of VMware, a data storage software business currently owned by EMC that will continue as a publicly traded company. With the terms of the deal finalized, Dell is now seeking financing to fund the large price tag of this move. According to sources familiar with the acquisition, the company is attempting to raise $40 billion in direct loans from a series of large banks. The remaining cash will be put up by Michael Dell, a handful of prearranged funding sources, and from cash on hand.

The acquisition, one of many large acquisition taking place now,  is set to position Dell, which was bought out by its founder to become a privately owned company two years ago, as an all purpose technology provider. With its popular PC production business, server manufacturing, and IT service division, the addition of EMC rounds the company out as one that can fulfill almost any tech-related need. The hope is that diversification of this kind can buffer Dell’s PC production against a PC market that is now smaller and more competitive than it was in the days before tablets and laptops.