Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell, said Dell is not longer on an acquisition strategy. Dell ruled out any major future acquisitions. It will focus on partnerships to offer products. The CEO said this during an analyst presentation livestream on Thursday.
Dell’s business went on an acquisition spree through the last ten years, as it expanded operations into software, server, PC, and storage products. The most notable one was a $67 billion merger in 2016 with EMC, which included VMware, creating the world’s largest private company at the time.
Collaboration, not acquisition
In April of this year, Dell announced its plans to spin off VMWare into two separate companies. The EMC acquisition did pay off. However, others like Perot Systems and Boomi fared badly and were sold. Like Alphabet, Dell was more of a parent company, overseeing a consortium of companies that operated independently.
Dell said, “I would not hold your breath for any large acquisitions like that.’ He added that the company’s M&A is going to be targeted. Having gone through a big transformation and dealing with a complicated capital structure, the company struggled to simplify things.
Dell opined that the company is better off forming partnerships than owning companies to collaborate on products and services.
The next chapter
Dell said that this approach is going to be the blueprint for what the company does in the future. The company is also paying off debt that has burdened it after it merged with EMC. The IT giant expects the debt load to be $29 billion by the end of this financial year, down from $33.4 billion in the previous year.
The company has an investments division that focuses on smaller and strategic investments. Dell Technologies spent an undisclosed amount on server chip maker Nuvia, which was purchased by Qualcomm earlier this year for $1.4 billion.
Meanwhile, you can check out Michael Dell’s book, ‘Play Nice But Win: A CEO’s Journey from Founder to Leader.’
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