戴尔公司（Dell Inc）2012年在《财富》美国500强排名第44位，去年排名为第51位，然而今年它却从榜单上消失了。事实上，这家公司在今年落榜之前已经连续十多年上榜。

    那么，到底发生了什么事？

    去年10月，戴尔公司创始人迈克尔•戴尔和私募股权投资公司银湖投资集团（Silver Lake）完成了备受争议的 250亿美元戴尔私有化交易。通常，这样的私营企业仍然有资格跻身财富500强（上榜的主要依据是每年的营收数据）因为他们的债务公开交易，进而也会公布财务业绩。

    但是，正如我们在上个月所报道的，戴尔公司通过144a终身规则（Rule 144a for-life）进行了债券结构化，这项规则在私募股权基金支持的公司中越来越受到欢迎（尽管它对债券持有人设置了一些短期的流动性约束）。就《财富》美国500强方面而言，这意味着戴尔公司无须公开披露自己的财务状况。相反，戴尔公司通过电话会议和在线数据室向债券持有人、未来债券持有人和某些分析师发布季度数据，但前提是对外保密。

    《财富》杂志（Fortune）在编辑财富500强榜单时曾经试图与戴尔公司进行沟通，但是遭到了回绝。

    戴尔公司拥有庞大的债务，因此它可能会在某些时候公布一些财务数据，但是现在还没有。由于没有获得官方数据，戴尔没能进入本年度的财富500强。（财富中文网）

    译者：skins

    Dell Inc. is no longer a Fortune 500 company, despite ranking #51 last year and #44 in 2012. In fact, it has been in the mix for well over a decade before this year’s fall from rankings grace.

    So, what happened?

    Dell was taken private last October by company founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake in a contentious $25 billion transaction. Often such private companies still can qualify for the Fortune 500 — which largely relies on annual revenue data — because their debt is publicly-traded and, as such, the companies release financial performance.

    But as we reported last month, Dell structured its bonds by using something called Rule 144a for-life, a technique that is growing in popularity among private equity-backed companies(despite creating some short-term liquidity constraints for bondholders). In terms of the Fortune 500, this means that Dell needn’t publicly-disclose its financials. Instead, bondholders, prospective bondholders and certain analysts are provided quarterly data via conference calls and an online data room, but only on a confidential basis.

    Fortune did reach out to Dell when putting together the Fortune 500, but was rebuffed.

    Dell has enough debt that some of its financials likely will leak at some point, but it hasn’t happened yet. And, without official figures, it’s out.