Dell votes to buy back VMware tracking stock and go public again, to trade on NYSE beginning December 28 under the symbol DELL
Ron Miller / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
This vote closes a loop that opened with the 2015 EMC takeover, where Dell paid partly in VMware tracking stock to keep the deal price above $30 a share without selling more equity. That instrument left public DVMT holders owning a claim on Dell's VMware stake rather than Dell itself.
Dell first explored a reverse merger through VMware, which would have made it tradeable without a formal IPO, before settling in July on a $21.7B cash-and-share buyback of the DVMT tracking stock. Today's shareholder approval is the last gate before the NYSE listing on December 28.
First-order effects
- DVMT holders exchange their VMware-linked claim for cash or Class C Dell shares, and Dell begins trading on the NYSE under DELL on December 28 instead of remaining a private company controlled by Michael Dell and Silver Lake.
Second-order effects
- VMware stays a separately listed subsidiary rather than being absorbed into a reverse merger, so its own shareholders keep a pure-play virtualization stock while Dell gains a liquid currency it can use for future deals or debt paydown.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, large take-privates exit not by selling themselves but by retiring the tracking-stock scaffolding used to fund the original deal and relisting directly — making tracking stock a transitional financing tool rather than a permanent structure.
The trend: Mega-buyouts are returning to public markets by unwinding the complex instruments created at acquisition time, trading simplicity for a durable listing rather than pursuing mergers or IPOs.