Dell is finally officially back at the fair

Dell Technologies has been officially listed on the stock exchange again since last Friday. The computer manufacturer is located on the New York Stock Exchance under the symbol DELL. Before that, it had taken over a large number of shares in VMware, which made it possible to reverse the IPO.

Almost six years ago, founder and CEO Michael Dell delisted the company. It was one of the largest buyouts since the financial crisis of 2008. Dell felt at the time that the continuous pressure of shareholders to make a profit put too much pressure on the company. A long-term strategy would be better. Last year, however, Michael Dell changed his mind and decided to go public again.

Reverse IPO

Prior to the acquisition, Dell acquired nearly $24 billion of VMware shares, in which it already held an 81 percent stake. This allowed Dell to skip the traditional routes a company has to follow for an IPO. This was important for the company, because it would probably be heavily criticised for the debt of no less than 52.7 billion dollars.

This debt seems to have had little impact on the company’s share price. Dell shares were worth $45.50 at the IPO on Friday. At the time of writing, the value of the shares was USD 48.87. This puts the company at a market value of 16.36 billion dollars.

New strategy

Until the early 2000s, Dell was seen by many as a pioneer in the field of computers. It was therefore one of the first companies that allowed customers to configure their own computers. Before that, it worked with Asian manufacturers on various components, so that prices could be kept as low as possible.

But Dell missed the boat where the industry switched to tablets, smartphones and music players and game consoles. As a result, Dell saw its sales decline for a long time, and the company had to shift its focus. It therefore became a company that, thanks to a number of smart acquisitions, changed into a provider of various information technology related services. These include storage, network technology, servers and cyber security.

The strategy is working, because last quarter Dell saw its turnover grow by fifteen percent. By 2019, the company expects a turnover of between 90.5 and 92 billion dollars.