Dell announces it will become a public company again by subsuming its tracking stock DVMT in a cash and share-swap deal worth $21.7B
- Dell to offer DVMT shareholders Dell stock or cash buyout — Total deal size comes to $21.7 billion, Dell to list on NYSE
Context & Ripple Effects
Dell's route back to the public market runs through the 2015 EMC takeover, where VMware tracking stock was used as acquisition currency and left public shareholders holding DVMT claims on Dell's most valuable asset. The July 2018 announcement converts that structure into a straight cash-or-shares buyout worth $21.7B, clearing the way for a full NYSE listing.
The follow-through came fast: shareholders approved the buyback of the VMware tracking stock in December, and DELL began trading on the NYSE on December 28, opening at $46 for a market value near $16B — well below the headline deal size, which framed the debate over what minority holders were actually paid.
First-order effects
- DVMT holders choose between a cash buyout or newly issued Dell Class C shares, ending the tracking-stock structure that tied them to Dell's VMware stake.
- Dell regains a public listing on the NYSE under the DELL symbol, giving outside investors direct access to the combined Dell-EMC-VMware entity.
Second-order effects
- VMware's ownership picture simplifies as the tracking stock disappears, removing an overhang on its shares and clarifying who holds economic interest in the virtualization business.
- The gap between the $21.7B deal value and the ~$16B market value at the December NYSE debut puts pressure on how similar take-private structures price minority buy-ins.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, large private companies treat tracking stock as a bridge instrument — issued as M&A currency, then absorbed when the sponsor wants a clean listing — rather than a permanent public-market vehicle.
- Regulators and institutional holders gain a template case for scrutinizing conflicts of interest when a controlling owner sets the terms for retiring a tracking stock.
The trend: Mega-take-privates are returning to public markets by buying in their own tracking stock, with the EMC-era VMware structure as the defining test case.