Dell founder agrees last minute $25bn deal and postpones record date and vote
Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake have sweetened their Dell buyout deal even further (despite saying their last offer would be best and final), keeping the price at $13.75 (£9.08) per share but offering a 13-cent-per-share special dividend.
In exchange Michael Dell and Silver Lake would receive the voting modifications they asked for, which means non-voters won’t be counted as “no” votes. As Michael Dell is not allowed to vote, the majority of shareholders needed is 43 per cent.
The committee has previously said it would need a deal worth $14 per share to think about changing voting rules, so this is something of a concession.
The deal was reached just hours before the shareholder vote was scheduled to take place, valuing the company at $24.9bn (£16.43bn). Michael Dell and Silver Lake had already increased their offer from $13.65 per share (valuing company at $24.4bn).
Dell subsequently postponed the vote until 15:00 (BST) on 12 September 2013 and moved the record date to 13 August, allowing shareholders who own stock of that date to vote.
This will anger activist investor Carl Icahn, who filed a lawsuit against Dell and its leadership in an attempt to delay the moving of the record date. He wants to stop Dell counting votes of people who bought shares after 5 February 2013 when the takeover proposal was announced.
Dell has also controversially announced it will hold its annual general meeting (at which board members could change) a month later on 17 October.