Dell Sells Software Unit to Francisco Partners, Elliott June 2016

By WeathersfieldTM

(Bloomberg) –Dell Inc. agreed sell its software unit to buyout firm Francisco Partners Management LLC and the private equity arm of activist investor Elliott Management Corp.

The sale of the unit, which is focused on advanced analytics, database management and data protection, will help Dell reduce its debt burden after a series of deals since its own buyout in 2013. Terms weren’t provided in the statement released Monday.

Chief Executive Officer and founder Michael Dell agreed in October to buy EMC Corp. for $67 billion to broaden the company’s product lineup from servers to storage devices amid intensifying competition. Dell, which has said it will add about $50 billion in debt to get the EMC deal done, expects the purchase to close between June and October, people familiar with the matter have said.

The sale of the software group is Dell’s latest ahead of its combination with EMC. NTT Data Corp., a unit of Japan’s former telephone monopoly, agreed to buy Dell’s information-technology services businesses for $3.06 billion in March. A month later, Dell took its cybersecurity company SecureWorks Corp. public, raising $112 million.

Debt financing for the latest transaction was provided by Credit Suisse Group AG and RBC Capital Markets, according to the statement.

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell is also proceeding with selling software assets Sonicwall and Quest, people with knowledge of the matter have said. EMC is seeking to sell its Documentum business as part of its plan with Dell to divest more than $6 billion in assets.

Elliott Management, led by billionaire Paul Elliott Singer, has pushed EMC to sell itself and spin off VMware, of which the storage company is the majority owner.