Dell founder says he will not lift bid further
DELL founder Michael Dell has confirmed that he and Silver Lake Management will not raise their buyout offer for the computer maker after raising the price last week to $13.75 a share.
“This is our best and final offer,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “The fact that many parties over many months looked at this company and were not willing to pay more than $13.65 per share made it hard to justify an increase. But we ultimately decided that it was appropriate to put more on the table in connection with asking for a change in the voting standard to allow a majority of the unaffiliated shares voting to determine the outcome.”
Dell and Silver Lake have so far failed to win enough shareholder votes to approve the buyout.
The sweetened deal was dependent on the special committee of Dell’s board agreeing to change the rules of voting so abstentions were not counted as “no” votes. But, ahead of a vote scheduled for Friday, it is said to want a bid of at least $14 before it will consider that change.
Dell also said he plans to stay at the firm if his bid is unsuccessful.