Dell To Buy EMC For $67B In Largest Technology Deal Ever

Dell Inc. will pay $67 billion to buy data storage company EMC Corp. in a cash-and-stock deal that will be the largest in the technology industry's history, EMC said Monday. The deal will see Dell become a hugely powerful player in the corporate information technology space, allowing it to leverage EMC's expertise in data storage with its No. 2 position in servers globally.

Texas-based Dell will pay shareholders of Massachusetts-based EMC $24.05 a share in cash plus $9 in tracking stock in EMC’s valuable stake in VMware.

The total price of $33.15 a share is 28 percent higher than the Oct. 7 closing price of EMC shares, before reports first appeared that a takeover was imminent. VMware is the cloud software company in which EMC holds an 81 percent stake and which makes up the bulk of EMC's overall value.

“The combination of Dell and EMC creates an enterprise solutions powerhouse bringing our customers industry leading innovation across their entire technology environment. Our new company will be exceptionally well-positioned for growth in the most strategic areas of next-generation IT including digital transformation, software-defined data center, converged infrastructure, hybrid cloud, mobile and security,” Dell founder Michael Dell said in a statement announcing the merger. “Our investments in R&D and innovation along with our privately controlled structure will give us unmatched scale, strength and flexibility, deepening our relationships with customers of all sizes.”

The PC maker, which was taken private by Dell in late 2013, is seeking to turn itself into an IT services company, and this takeover is the latest move in that direction. “We’re continuing to evolve the company into the most relevant areas where IT is moving,” Dell said in an interview with the New York Times. “This deal just accelerates that.”