The rumors and hints have finally been confirmed by the company

Feb 5, 2013 14:54 GMT  ·  By

The past couple of weeks were filled to the brim with reports and speculation about Dell and how its founder wanted to make it private, in order to free it from the damaging effects of shareholder conflicting interests.

Now, Dell itself has published a press release in which it announces the buyout. The financing happened exactly like the report we wrote earlier today said it would. The full sum ended up at $24.4 billion / 18 billion Euro.

Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners will acquire Dell and take the company private, as approved by The Dell Board of Directors acting on the recommendation of a special committee of independent directors. The approval was unanimous.

J.P. Morgan and Evercore Partners are acting as financial advisors, while Debevoise & Plimpton LLP are offering legal counsel to the Special Committee.

Dell would not have felt the need for this withdrawal from the NASDAQ stock market if its products hadn't lost relevance.

Sadly, the past two years have been marked by a distinct reduction in customer interest. The corporation has constantly failed to keep up with the trends, especially the tablet and convertible ultrabook segments.

Michael Dell thinks a single person or small staff team can better lead the company if they don't have to meet stockholder demands anymore.

Since the Board of Directors agrees, all that is left is to actually buy the shares not already owned by the founder. Microsoft has offered a $2 billion loan (1.48 billion Euro), but banks and the global technology investment firm Silver Lake are going to finance the rest.

In all respects, this is being treated as Dell being acquired by Michael Dell and Silver Lake. Dell stockholders will receive $13.65 / 10.09 Euro in cash for each share, which is 25% above the closing share price of $10.88 on January 11, 2013, the last trading day before rumors of a possible going-private transaction surfaced.