Dell Is Going More Public Again
Also nanosecond timing and substitute insider trading.
Dell.
In 2013, Michael Dell closed a management buyout that took his eponymous computer company private. Being private had some advantages for the company (it could invest in a long-term turnaround rather than being subject to the short-term whims of the stock market, etc.), and for Michael Dell and his private-equity backers (they got all the upside if the turnaround worked). But it had a big disadvantage, which is that it made it harder for Dell to make ambitious acquisitions. Big public companies can buy other big public companies using their own stock. Dell, as a private company, couldn’t: If it wanted to acquire a big public data-storage company for $67 billion, for instance, it would need to either borrow a ton of money to pay cash, or go public again so that it could issue shares.