EMC shareholders vote in favour of Dell deal

Dell to buy EMC for $67bn? Where do we sign, ask EMC shareholders

PC maker Dell's proposed acquisition of storage hardware vendor EMC is good to go after EMC's shareholders voted, as expected, strongly in favour of the $67bn (£51bn) mega-deal.

The early tallies from voting at the special meeting of shareholders indicated that the deal would go through with little opposition, while the final results will be filed with the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, later this week.

The deal between the two companies will "create a powerhouse in the technology industry", said EMC CEO Joe Tucci (pictured). However, Dell has struggled to put together the funds to finance the deal, and its sale of a number of assets has been slow, despite the buoyant market for M&A deals over the past few years.

It was reported in June that Dell is close to the sale of some of its software assets, including the SonicWALL firewall software, to a consortium of private-equity investors.

The New York Post said in February that Dell was having a tough time raising the $50bn or so in finance that it needs to complete the deal, and is also on the hook for a break-up fee of around $4bn if it is unable to do so.

Much of EMC's value, meanwhile, is tied up in its controlling stake in virtualisation software provider VMware. The company founded by Diane Greene is estimated to be worth between $25bn and $26bn.

Dell founder Michael Dell took the PC maker private in 2013 in a $24bn deal, part-financed by private equity. The aim was to take the company away from the public glare and public scrutiny that quarterly financial reporting schedules bring. However, Dell has remain as affected by the moribund market for laptops and PCs as any other company.