Dell & EMC Merge; VMware to Remain Public

In a record deal, Dell has agreed to purchase EMC for a reported $67 billion dollars, The Wall Street Journal reports. Dell will be joined by private equity firm Silver Lake in the transaction, and the acquisition will be marked as the biggest technology sector merger in history. The companies, both which are featured in our Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions Directory as two of the top vendors in the industry will now become one as Dell has seemingly taken the first step in their evolution to become more than just a personal computer company.

VMware will also be impacted by this deal, as the company is 80 percent owned by EMC. However, the company will continue to be traded publically but with Dell as the controlling shareholder. VMware, like Dell and EMC is also one of the top solutions in the backup and disaster recovery space, and a tool that we regularly track.

Even prior to the deal, Dell had already become a major player in the server market, although that has largely come via success selling to small and midsize businesses. Dell is hoping to expand this with their acquisition of EMC. This should come quickly as EMC has the broadest range of enterprise storage equipment in the world and has been a trusted source of backup and recovery solutions for some time.

According to USA Today, Dell’s acquisition of EMC will make the tandem the number-three player in enterprise technology by revenue, trailing only HP and IBM.

We’ll be sure to keep up-to-date on this deal as more information becomes available. It will be very interesting to see how things unfold in the near term, as this merger could certainly have a long-lasting impact on the backup and recovery market for some time.