戴尔将避开传统IPO重新上市，这次玩法不同

2013年，戴尔科技（Dell Technologies）通过240亿美元的杠杆收购完成了私有化，牵头人是公司创始人迈克尔·戴尔和私募股权公司银湖（Silver Lake Partners）。当时戴尔在致员工的信中写道：“公司正在顺利转型，但我们意识到这需要更多时间、投资和耐心。”在此前的五年时间里，戴尔的股价下跌了31%，原因是个人电脑销售滑坡，移动计算革命以及初露锋芒的云计算都在蚕食其销售额和利润。

7月2日，戴尔宣布，离开股市五年后公司已基本实现复苏，而且有可能再次上市。不过，戴尔正在策划一次复杂的回归，这次不完全是首发上市（IPO），而且高度依赖于戴尔2017年收购的EMC及其软件附属VMWare。

不通过IPO戴尔怎样上市？

两年前斥资670亿美元收购EMC时，戴尔还从后者手中买下了VMWare约八成控股权。剩余的VMWare股份已经上市，证券代码为“VMW”。这次收购让戴尔背上了沉重的债务负担，因此它决定向EMC股东支付一部分现金，另一部分则是至少在纸面上代表WMWare控股权的新追踪股票。这些追踪股份的代码是“DVMT”，由于基本实现了这个目标，它们的走势一直和WMWare自身的股票紧密相关。现在戴尔提议用现金加新发行的戴尔C类股票来全面收购这些追踪股份。这些C类股票将在纽约证交所上市，从而使戴尔再次成为上市公司。

持有VMWare追踪股票的股东会拿到多少钱？

他们可以选择用1股追踪股票来换109美元现金或1.3665股的戴尔C股。6月29日，该追踪股票收于84.58美元。也就是说，戴尔提出的现金收购方案溢价29%，换股则溢价一倍以上。如果选择戴尔C股，其价值将取决于这些股票上市后的价格。

也就是说股市上又会有戴尔的股票了，那这为什么不是IPO呢？

IPO不光是一家公司把股票放到公开市场上交易。所谓的“发行”是通过向公众出售股份来融资，其目的是让原先的投资者套现或充实公司资金。戴尔既没有出售任何新股，也没有筹集资金，它只是把一种股票换成了另外一种。同样的，Spotify今年4月的上市也不符合IPO的定义，因为Spotify只是让现有股东通过证交所来买卖它的股份，这家音乐流媒体龙头并未发售任何新股，也没有进行融资。

新C股股东对戴尔有多少所有权？

戴尔表示，换股后上述追踪股票股东将持有该公司21%-31%的股份，具体数字要看有多少人选择现金，有多少人选择换股（这些追踪股票的价值约为220亿美元，而戴尔只准备了90亿美元收购现金，所以并不是所有人都能选择现金）。但迈克尔·戴尔及其私募伙伴仍将全面控制戴尔，因为他们所持股票的投票权大于这些新C股。

戴尔最近表现如何？

戴尔现在可能要上市的原因之一就是目前它的情况远好于私有化时期。在最近的一个完整季度中，该公司收入上升了19%，达到214亿美元；净亏损5亿美元，减少了55%；息税折旧摊销前利润增长了33%，升至24亿美元。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校: 夏林

Back in 2013, Dell Technologies went private in a $24 billion leveraged buyout led by founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners. “Dell’s transformation is well under way, but we recognize it will still take more time, investment and patience,” he wrote to his employees at the time. Over the prior five years, the company’s stock price had fallen 31%, as slipping personal computer sales, the mobile computing revolution, and the beginning of the cloud computing revolution all ate into sales and profits.

On July 2nd, the company announced that after spending the next five years off the stock market, the recovery was largely in hand and it would go public once again. Dell is plotting a complex return, however, that’s not quite an initial public offering and leans heavily on its 2017 acquisition of EMC and its software unit, VMWare.

How will Dell go public without an IPO?

When Dell acquired EMC for $67 billion two years ago, it also acquired EMC’s roughly 80% controlling stake in VMware. The remaining ownership of VMWare was already publicly traded under the symbol “VMW.” Carrying a massive debt burden from the acquisition, Dell decided to pay EMC shareholders partly in cash and partly with a new tracking stock that—at least on paper—represented the controlling stake in VMWare. The tracking stock, under the symbol “DVMT,” largely met that goal and has traded in close correlation with VMware’s own stock. Now Dell is proposing to buy out owners of the tracking stock with a combination of cash and a newly issued “C” class of stock in Dell itself. That new stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange, making Dell again a public company.

How much will owners of Dell’s VMWare tracking stock get paid?

Owners can choose to take $109 in cash or 1.3665 shares of the new Dell “C” class of stock. The tracking stock closed at $84.58 on June 29, so the offer represents a 29% premium for the cash option and more than double what the tracking stock was worth when Dell first handed it out. The value for those who choose the almost 1.4 shares of Dell “C” stock will depend on the price of those shares once trading begins.

So if Dell will again have a publicly traded stock, why isn’t this an IPO?

An IPO, or initial public offering, is more that just a company listing its stock for public trading. The “offering” is the sale of shares to the public to raise money and either pay off prior investors or bolster the company’s coffers. Dell isn’t selling any new shares or raising any money—it’s just exchanging one kind of stock for another. Likewise, Spotify’s deal to publicly list its stock in April didn’t qualify as an IPO, because the company just let existing shareholders start trading their stock on an exchange. The music streaming leader didn’t sell any new shares or raise any money.

How much of Dell will holders of the new “C” class of stock own?

Dell says holders of the tracking stock will end up owning 21% to 31% of the company after the exchange, depending on how many people choose cash or stock (only $9 billion in cash will be available to pay off about $22 billion worth of tracking stock, so not everyone can take the cash option). Michael Dell and his private equity partners will retain substantial control of the company, however, because the class of stock they own has greater voting rights than the new class “C” shares.

How has Dell been doing lately?

Part of the reason Dell may be going public now is that the company is doing much better than when it went private. Revenue in its most recently completed quarter rose 19% to $21.4 billion while the company’s net loss fell by 55% to $500 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization rose 33% to $2.4 billion.