670亿美元：谁有实力出比这更高的价格来收购EMC？

    昨天上午，EMC同意以670亿美元的价格被戴尔收购，不过条款中有“竞购”期规定，他们可以在接下来的60天内寻找一个更好的买家。

    很难想象还有哪家公司会有足够的财力和兴趣，开出比戴尔更高的价格，更不用说他们还得花时间去思考更能盈利的公司结构。不过我们至少可以列一下那些可能追求EMC的买家。

    IBM：首先，IBM绝对有这个实力。公司的市值大约是EMC的三倍，拥有的现金超过80亿美元。问题在于IBM并不热衷于超大规模并购。实际上，公司史上最大的一次交易是在2007年以50亿美元收购康格诺。

    惠普：惠普实际上在去年就想收购EMC，不过双方在价格上没有谈拢。与去年谈判时相比，EMC的股价（在戴尔宣布收购前）稍有降低，不过惠普的情况也一样。此外，惠普在谈判后还宣布了拆分业务的计划。很难想象有哪家刚刚花了一年时间进行拆分的企业，会有兴趣再进行一年（甚至几年）的合并工作。

    微软：考虑到微软两年前还为戴尔的买断提供了资金，他们此时横插一脚显然“政治不正确”。不过微软的首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉是一个以公司为先的人，他对不寻常的企业并购也有一定兴趣。此外，理论上微软也有财力掏钱办成这件事。

    甲骨文：从战略上看，甲骨文与EMC最为合适，而且他们也有在2004年斥资103亿美元收购PeopleSoft的大手笔。不过公司随后以74亿美元收购太阳微系统公司却收效甚微，这可能让他们不太敢再收购硬件公司。

    思科：思科是这些公司中最有可能收购EMC的，但概率也不太大。此外，这两家公司现在还表示他们将在未来继续合作，这意味着双方不需要合并就能获得自己想要的东西。

    亚马逊：亚马逊不会全部收购EMC，可能会收购EMC控股的虚拟化解决方案厂商VMware，借此增强自己的云服务领域。已经私有化的戴尔完成这次收购后，Vmware将保持上市不被私有化。不过，亚马逊也不热衷于大手笔的收购，他们只有过一次10亿美元以上的收购（2009年以12亿美元收购Zappos）。

    通用电气：通用电气不会收购EMC，不过可能会对EMC拥有的Pivotal感兴趣。通用电气曾经在2010年投资1.05亿美元获得了后者10%的股份。

    私募股权：不可能。私募股权买不起EMC，除非他们设法与EMC的大股东联合，促使EMC做出结构调整，类似于黑石集团和卡尔·伊坎在2013年收购戴尔的提议。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    EMC Corp this morning agreed to be taken (mostly) private by Dell Inc. for $67 billion, but included a “go shop” provision whereby it can solicit superior offers for the next 60 days.

    It’s hard to imagine that any other company has both the resources and interest in besting Dell — let alone the time to figure out a more beneficial structure — but we’d be remiss in not at least pointing out the possible suitors for EMC:

    IBM:For starters, IBM certainly has the resources. Its market cap is around three times larger than EMC’s, and it has more than $8 billion in cash on hand. The trouble is that IBM isn’t known for mega-mergers. In fact, its largest-ever purchase was a $5 billion deal for Cognos in 2007.

    Hewlett-Packard:HP actually did try to buy EMC last year, but talks fell apart over price. EMC’s share price (pre-Dell reports) was a bit lower than it was during those discussions, but so is HP’s. Moreover, HP subsequently announced plans to split up its business. Hard to imagine either newly-independent unit would want to follow up a year of separation work with a year (or more) of combination work.

    Microsoft:This one would be politically incorrect given that Microsoft helped bankroll Dell’s own buyout two years ago, but CEO Satya Nadella is an enterprise-first guy who has shown some appetite for unusual M&A activity. Plus, it could literally pay cash for the entire thing.

    Oracle:This may be the strongest strategic fit, and Oracle was willing to pay $10.3 billion for PeopleSoft back in 2004. But its subsequent $7.4 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems was problematic and may have left Oracle nervous about acquiring still more hardware.

    Cisco:Better odds than most other companies on this list, but that’s really not saying too much. Plus, both Cisco and EMC today went out of their way to say that they’ll continue to work together going forward, which would suggest that each side is still getting what it wants from their non-merged relationship.

    Amazon:Again, not a full-scale EMC buyout, but perhaps a cloud unification play for VMware VMW -8.02% , an EMC-controlled virtualization group that will retain a public equity “stub” following the Dell merger. Then again, Amazon isn’t known for big purchases, having only ever bought one company for more than $1 billion (Zappos, for $1.2 billion in 2009).

    General Electric:Not to buy EMC, but perhaps to make a play for EMC-owned Pivotal, in which GE invested $105 million for a 10% stake back in 2010.

    Private equity:Nope. Private equity alone can’t afford this, unless it somehow teams up with a large EMC shareholder to try and force an alternate structure. Kind of like what The Blackstone Group BX -0.91% and Carl Icahn proposed during Dell’s 2013 buyout.