Austin—Dell Technologies is on its way to becoming a public company again. Shareholders of a stock that’s linked to Dell subsidiary VMware approved a plan for Dell to buy out the stock, allowing it to return to the public market.
Dell, based in Round Rock, TX, announced Tuesday that 61 percent of the shareholders of the so-called “tracking stock” voted in favor the deal. (About 89 percent of shareholders voted.) The stock, traded as DMVT, was issued when Dell acquired storage giant EMC in 2016 for $67 billion. Dell also gained an 81 percent stake in VMware that EMC owned.
Dell expects to begin trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 28, the same day the deal is expected to close. It will trade under the ticker DELL.
Shareholders can cash out as part of the transaction—in November, Dell increased its initial offer of $109 per share to $120—with a cap on the total amount to be paid out at $14 billion (increased from $9 billion). Those who don’t can convert their shares into shares of the new publicly traded Dell. The tracking stock traded at $104.85 per share as of 11:03 a.m. in New York, up 24 percent since June 29, before the deal was announced.
Michael Dell, the founder of the company, took the business private with private equity firm Silver Lake Management in 2013. Dell has promised that VMware (NYSE: [[ticker:VMW]]) will continue to operate independently.
