Show us the money!
That’s the message the biggest opponent of Dell’s $24.4 billion buyout — spearheaded by Silver Lake Partners and the PC maker’s founder, Michael Dell — is trying to drive home.
Southeastern Asset Management, representing 8.4 percent of the Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker, yesterday ratcheted up the heat on Dell, requesting the company hand over its financial records and a detailed list of its shareholders.
SAM, the $33 billion Tennessee asset manager run by CEO Mason Hawkins and CIO Staley Cates, first squared off against Silver Lake and the Dell deal just days after it officially made its $13.65 a share buyout plans known on Feb. 5.
Already, SAM has hired proxy solicitation firm D.F. King to persuade more Dell investors to block the buyout.
In a letter to Dell’s board yesterday, SAM accused the company of “intentionally emphasizing declining PC sales” in order to buy the company on the cheap.
Dell is also looking to use its $14 billion-plus cash hoard, held mostly in foreign coffers, to assist with the deal rather than to pay back longtime investors, the letter said.
Dell’s shares peaked above $14 yesterday for the first time in nearly a year — representing a 3 percent discount to the proposed deal price — suggesting investors are betting on a higher offer.
SAM argues that Dell’s shareholders could receive a $12-a-share dividend and still have leftover cash.