Dell is going public again, once it grabs back VMWare stock

[Tipup]

DELL IS GOING PUBLIC... AGAIN; shareholders have voted to take the company out of the realms of private ownership and back into the public market.

While Dell had previously been floated on the stock market way back in 1988, founder Michael Dell took back control of the computer maker back in 2013, making it one rather large privately held firm.

But that's looking likely to change again as Dell shareholders voted 61 per cent in favour of buying back VMWare tracking stock - Dell owns 80 per cent of the company - for $23.9bn, to take the company public again on 28 December.

That convoluted sounding process is so that Dell avoids the need to go through the initial public offering process and should mean it gets its stocks on the public market at a faster rate.

"With this vote, we are simplifying Dell Technologies' capital structure and aligning the interests of our investors," said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO at Dell Technologies - in case you hadn't figured that out.

"This strengthens our strategic position, as we continue to deliver innovation, long-term vision and integrated solutions from the edge to the core to the cloud. We've created Dell Technologies to be our customers' most trusted partner in their digital transformation."

Reading between the sanitised quote, the move looks like one that will bring VMWare closer into the Dell corporate fold but a the same time give Dell scope to raise some money and value through being traded on the stock market.

Dell is also one of the few companies we can think of that's gone from private to public to private and then to public again, which gives the firm a rather storied history if you're into corporate wrangling and all that.

Nevertheless, the move looks to ensure that Dell keeps its prominent position in the technology world and doesn't end up splitting itself into a complex mix of parts in the vein of HP. µ