There could be a bidding war for Dell, sources close to the deal said.
Both Blackstone Group and investor Carl Icahn reportedly each submitted rival bids late Friday night countering the existing offer by founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management of $24.4 billion in a leveraged buyout.
Dell isn’t planning to announce whether it received any bids until tomorrow, even though the deadline was Friday at midnight
Blackstone and Icahn each notified a special committee of Dell’s board that they are working on firm bids, which will give them four more days to put together offers, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
Both Blackstone, and Icahn reportedly are willing to go as high as $15 a share, which would exceed the proposal from CEO Michael Dell and Silver Lake to take the computer maker private for $13.65 a share.
Large institutional investors in Dell were pushing for competing bids, saying the existing $13.65-a-share offer was too low. Dell shares closed unchanged at $14.14 in Nasdaq trading on Friday.
A spokesman for the Dell special committee didn’t return calls or e-mails seeking comment. David Frink, a spokesman for Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, declined to comment. Peter Rose and Christine Anderson of Blackstone didn’t respond to phone calls and e-mails seeking comment. A call to Icahn’s office wasn’t returned.
Unless another bidder emerges, Michael Dell, the computer maker’s largest shareholder, and Silver Lake will be left to seek support for a bid that has been criticized as too low.
The buyout is Michael Dell’s attempt to take back majority control of the company he started in 1984 in a University of Texas dorm. He’s betting that he can more effectively transform Dell into a provider of a broad range of products and services for corporations outside the scrutiny of public investors.
With Post wire services