Dell, the world’s third largest PC maker, and the cloud storage company EMC Corp. are in discussions about a potential merger, reports the Wall Street Journal, for what could be one of the biggest technology deals in history.
An agreement could be reached within a week, according to the New York Times. Of course, it’s also possible the talks won’t lead to any deal at all. It remains unclear if the two companies are discussing a full or partial takeover of EMC. Shares of EMC shot up 9% in after-hours trading Wednesday on the news.
EMC, based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, has a market capitalization of $50 billion, and it owns the software-development company Pivotal and enterprise-security firm RSA, as well as 80% of the virtualization company VMware. Amid slowing revenue and a declining stock price, some investors have been calling for a breakup of its businesses. The hedge fund Elliott Management, which owns a 2% stake in EMC, has publicly pressured the company to spin off VMware.
EMC performed a strategic review last year to explore its options. In 2014, the company held talks with both Dell and Hewlett-Packard. The discussions with HP ended before the Palo Alto, California company announced it was splitting its printer and PC businesses.