Dell Inc. and EMC Corporation announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which Dell, together with its owners, Michael S. Dell, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell, MSD Partners and Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing, will acquire EMC Corporation, while maintaining VMware as a publicly-traded company.
Under the terms of the agreement, EMC shareholders will receive $24.05 per share in cash in addition to tracking stock linked to a portion of EMC’s economic interest in the VMware business. Based on the estimated number of EMC shares outstanding at the close of the transaction, EMC shareholders are expected to receive approximately 0.111 shares of new tracking stock for each EMC share. Assuming, for illustrative purposes, a valuation for each share of tracking stock of $81.78, the intraday volume-weighted average price for VMware on Wednesday, October 7, 2015, EMC shareholders would receive a total combined consideration of $33.15 per EMC share and the total transaction would be valued at approximately $67 billion. The value of the tracking stock may vary from the market price of VMware given the different characteristics and rights of the two stocks.
Terms of the Transaction:
Morgan Stanley & CO LLC is acting as lead financial advisor to EMC and provided a fairness opinion to EMC’s Board of Directors. Evercore Partners also provided a fairness opinion to EMC’s Board of Directors, and Needham and Company provided financial assistance to EMC. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal advisor to EMC. J.P. Morgan is acting as lead financial advisor to Dell and Silver Lake. Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan (in alphabetical order) are acting as global financing coordinators. Barclays, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., affiliates of Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan, and RBC Capital Markets (in alphabetical order) are acting as financial advisors and are providing debt financing to Dell. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is acting as legal advisor to Dell and Silver Lake. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is acting as legal advisor to Michael Dell and MSD Partners.