The Blackstone Group had the winning formula when it was considering making a rival Dell bid — and would have been hard to beat, one person close to the company told The Post.
Blackstone, which kicked the tires of the troubled PC maker but never submitted a formal plan, would have kept a stub of Dell’s shares public — satisfying the company’s biggest stockholder, Southeastern Asset Management, the person said.
With Blackstone on the sidelines, in entered shareholder activist Carl Icahn, who many shareholders believed did not present a realistic alternative to Michael Dell’s controversial take-private proposal.
But shareholders who wanted to participate in the upside of a Dell transformation could have prevailed in stopping Michael Dell had they found the right suitor, the source said, as Michael Dell did not want to offer a public stub.
Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners on Thursday won shareholder approval to buy the PC maker for $24.9 billion, or $13.88 a share.