How Wall Street’s Greatest Piece Of Financial Engineering Propelled Michael Dell To A $50 Billion Fortune

How Wall Street’s Greatest Piece Of Financial Engineering Propelled Michael Dell To A $50 Billion Fortune

In 2013, personal computer billionaire Michael sat at a crossroads. Dell Technologies, the computer company he founded in his University of Texas dorm room, was suffering from falling PC demand and its stock stagnated. Alongside private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, Dell launched a $25 billion leveraged buyout of his company. The controversial deal roused an epic battle with billionaire Carl Icahn, and it has since yielded one of the greatest windfalls ever witnessed on Wall Street. With financial alchemy, heaps of cheap debt and a shrewd takeover partner in Silver Lake's billionaire co-CEO Egon Durban, Dell has effectively increased the value of his Dell Technologies stock from $3. 6 billion in 2013, to $39 billion presently. Dell's overall net worth, which recently surpassed $50 billion, has more than tripled in under a decade. Once at risk of becoming an afterthought, Dell Technologies now trades an almost $80 billion market cap. On Wednesday, Dell Technologies said it will spin off its crown jewel asset, an 81% stake in cloud infrastructure giant VMWare to public shareholders. The maneuver, expected to be completed this year, will simplify and deleverage Dell's tech empire. It will also give the most clear view yet into