Michael Dell is making a personal pitch to win support for the
proposed deal to buy his company from public investors.
Mr. Dell pledged about $4.5 billion of his cash and stock toward
the deal struck in February to take Dell Inc. (DELL) private. The
company chairman and CEO, who founded Dell as a college student
nearly 30 years ago, hasn't said much since then about the $24.4
billion buyout, which is facing loud opposition from investor Carl
Icahn and other Dell stockholders.
In a bullet-point presentation aimed at Dell shareholders and
released Friday, Mr. Dell lays out his thinking on why the computer
maker is ailing and needs time away from shareholder scrutiny to
right itself.
"As a public company, we must take a more cautious approach to
our transformation, because we must consider how our stock price
will react to the steps we take and what effect that will have on
the company and on customers and employees," Mr. Dell said in the
eight-page investor presentation filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. "This hurts the speed and efficacy of the
transformation and is not good for the long-term health of the
company."
Mr. Dell's presentation said the personal-computing market is
deteriorating faster than expected, and Dell hasn't yet been able
to make up the difference with newer businesses selling corporate
software, computing storage and other services to companies.
Mr. Dell plans to meet soon with Dell stockholders to personally
make his pitch, according to a person familiar with Mr. Dell's
plans.
The presentation largely repeats the rationale for the buyout
advanced by Dell's board for months, but it is the first time Mr.
Dell himself has made a detailed case for why his company needs
time and shelter to right itself. The efforts to take Dell private
also reflect shortcomings of Mr. Dell's strategy, which has
included billions of dollars in acquisitions to make Dell less
dependent on the PC business.
Write to Shira Ovide at Shira.Ovide@wsj.com
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