The Dell-EMC saga continued this week with a report that Dell is shopping Perot Systems for $5 billion. Dell bought Perot, which helps big businesses select and deploy the right information technology, six years ago for $3.9 billion. Dell now wants $5 billion for the Perot business according to Re/Code.
There had already been several reports that Dell is looking to offload several of its businesses to lighten its debt load—estimated to be a whopping $45 billion—that the computer-maker’s proposed $67 billion acquisition of EMC (EMC) would incur. For example, private equity firms have reportedly explored acquiring Dell’s Sonicwall and Quest businesses.
Dell founder and chief executive Michael Dell hatched his plan to buy EMC in order to consolidate a raft of enterprise-focused businesses into one huge company. The move was seen as the opposite of HP’s (HPQ) decision to cut itself into two smaller businesses. But given the price of EMC, it now appears that Dell will need to offload other businesses to land the bigger prize.
In related news, Saturday marked the end of the 60-day “go shop” provision, part of the original EMC-Dell deal that enabled EMC to consider other offers—a prospect no one ever deemed likely.
Dell declined to comment for this story.
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