After half a decade of private ownership, tech company Dell has once again returned to being publicly traded through the stock market.
The Verge reports on this decision, noting the change in policy since five years prior in 2013 when founder and CEO Michael Dell first privatized the company. This decision was finalized on December 28, shares going on sale at the New York Stock Exchange for a mere $46 under the symbol of DELL.
According to Dell himself, this move comes as a culmination of his strategy brought about by taking the company private to begin with all those years ago. When that decision was made, the company was in a bad place financially and losing money. After a $25 billion buyout by a company called Silver Lake, Dell was able to refocus its efforts without the pressure of shareholders.
As a result, Dell has been slowly making its way back to the apex of computing. Some of its latest developments over the years have been in the realms of cloud computing systems as well as gaming.
Obviously, this decision wasn’t as simple as just deciding to become publicly traded once more. In order to get around questioning regarding the debt still held by Dell and bypass the initial public offering required to get back on the market, the company made an arrangement with one of its own subsidiaries called VMware, a cloud computing firm.
As VMware is already a publicly traded company, Dell was able to gain a foothold in the market by buying around $24 billion in shares from them. Already owning close 80% of the company, this and the $67 billion buyout of tech giant EMC made it easy for Dell to set up shop once more due to the large amount of existing stocks they owned.
Business Insider estimates the company is already trading up at close to 1.19% after their return on Friday. How things will shape up down the line and whether or not the company’s debt or Silver Lake’s partial control (they still hold around a quarter of the company) will have any affect on Dell’s success remain to be seen.
Dil Bole Oberoi
