Microsoft May Invest $1B-$3B In Dell Buyout 151
alexander_686 writes "We heard that Dell is in buyout talks with private equity firms. Now, the word is that Microsoft may invest one to three billion dollars in that buyout. For that amount of money, Microsoft isn't going for majority ownership, but it would be a significant stake. Dell is worth around $22-25 billion. Speculation is that investors would put up $5-7 billion in equity, borrowing the rest. As a point of reference, Michael Dell's stock is worth $3.6 billion."
It would make sense (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft has been dissecting Apples strategy of being a device and os company. Or perhaps they want to be IBM, which does the same thing? A Microsoft stake in Dell might mean an end to Studiobuntu Laptops, though. And I think that would be a shame. Those things are nice.
So no more linux on dell systems bye sever market (Score:4, Interesting)
So no more linux on dell systems. MS may push there UEFI boot lock in and then say bye bye to a big part of the sever market then.
Microsoft needs Dell (Score:5, Interesting)
Dell is the most loyal company to Microsoft of any of the OEM's and they always play ball. Their efforts on *nix support are minimal and they are legendary for the work they will do try to inspire you to run Windows. With Asian OEM's increasingly dis-enfranchised with Microsoft the need for a partner that isn't going go their own way is paramount.
I wouldn't say things are as bad as around a decade ago when Microsoft bailed out Apple to prevent their bankruptcy. That being said I think a fair argument can be made that Microsoft needs Dell more than Dell needs Microsoft. If your surprised about this investment you haven't been in the industry very long.
Re:Motivation (Score:4, Interesting)
And they haven't been pushing Windows 8 tablets as much as other companies.
On the contrary, I think Dell has been pushing Windows 8 tablets much more than others, with the exception of maybe HP. They have been producing Windows tablet PCs since 2008 with the Latitude XT, which as an okay tablet although decidedly 1st generation and way overpriced. Since then they've released a new version almost yearly, and have done a great job marketing them toward businesses. Their Latitude 10 tablets are some of the more appealing tablets out there (I don't know of many other tablets with a user removable battery), and for full Windows 8 tablets they actually managed to get some sane pricing on them... originally going for $670, but then they added an entry level $580 version. As a tablet PC lover I've been more than happy with Dell's support of this device category.
Re:Microsoft needs Dell (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmmm, well I've been in the industry for a long, long time...and many things have not so much surprised me as simply amazed me.
Like the slow-motion cluster fuck that IBM made of the original PC-PS/2 & DOS-WIN-OS/2 Intel battlefield.
The astonishing demise of DEC (Digital) and HP, innovative engineering-led companies absorbed by the former beige-box cowboys at Compaq, with the final blow dealt by the lovely Carla.
Don't even get me started on Xerox, who actually marketed a full GUI system before Apple. Worked well too, but was a tad pricy, like the Lisa.
Given the above, I am not surprised that MSFT would invest in Dell.
What interests me is that you seem to think that it's a smart move.
Microsoft does not need Dell. People who buy their products are not driven by hardware choice - in the PC world there is still plenty of that. Despite the various boosters, more than all the other platforms combined...
If Dell went South tomorrow, plenty of hardware manufacturers would pick up the market share overnight, and others would be cutting their own throats to do the same for the enterprise support.
MSFT only bailed out Apple to pre-empt antitrust attacks, (a move that was partially successful, unless you use MS-Office on a Mac)
No, this report, if true, is just yet another sign that the boys in Redmond are running out of good ideas.
$50 min-remote pc threat worked wonders (Score:4, Interesting)
Dell had threatened to make nice cheap $50 appliance that connected to a host OS in the cloud.
That threat seems to have produced a nice response from the NW.