Give Michael Dell credit — he’s apparently willing to put his money where his mouth is. Unnamed sources have told Bloomberg that Dell, the founder of Dell Inc. (DELL), is planning to spend “as much as $1 billion of his personal funds” to regain control of the company and take it private. Bloomberg’s sources indicate that Dell would combine the personal funds with his own $3.6 billion stake in the company to fund just over half of the money needed to buy out Dell. The rest of the buyout would reportedly be “financed by debt and possibly some of the $11 billion of cash Dell reported” in its last earnings report, as well up to $2 billion provided by Silver Lake Management and Microsoft (MSFT).
We’ve heard rumblings that Dell wants to go private because it has a truly bold plan to reinvent itself and it wants to be free to work on it away from the pressures of quarterly earnings expectations. At the very least, whatever Michael Dell has planned will be a significant upgrade from whatever advice the Dell Dude had to offer.
