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I can't wait for Dell to go public again, so that we can someday have a repeat of the last private buyout debacle, in which banks literally couldn't keep track

I can't wait for Dell to go public again, so that we can someday have a repeat of the last private buyout debacle, in which banks literally couldn't keep track of who owned Dell stock[0], and Dell shareholders simultaneously argued that the stock price was too high while also suing for it being too low.... and won[1]. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-07-14/banks-forgot-who-was-supposed-to-own-dell-shares https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-07-14/banks-for... [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-01/michael-dell-bought-his-company-too-cheaply https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-01/michael-d...

airstrike 9y ago
Appraisal rights lawsuits are essentially trolling in the M&A world. It's a nuisance markets, bankers, lawyers and courts have to deal with, but they're not relevant to anyone who isn't a party to the deal. Dell going public again in no way indicates there will ever be another private buyout. That may or may not happen, and both the market and the industry have changed much since Michael Dell took it private. Different groups of shareholders argued different things... appraisal rights are weird, and at the end of the day 99% of people in Finance will argue that the judge's decision on that case is entirely inconsistent with even the most basic principles of corporate finance and capital markets. Just because one guy who happens to have the power to decide the lawsuit's ultimate fate says his version of the facts is right doesn't mean he is in fact correct.
teemwerk 9y ago
The Dell takeover valuation decision got overturned, which is quite reasonable to say the least. However the valuation do-over was thought to be a solution is beyond me. The question of the case was "was Dell transparent in his direction for the company, and was the market process by which they auctioned off Dell fair and open?" Trying to rend some valuation of the company that no one was willing to pay and deciding 'that's the one' was weird. Of course every group of stakeholders is going to have a different idea of what they're willing to pay for the company, that's why they had a bidding process. If the judge came up with something lower than what Silver Lake and Dell came up with, would the former shareholders have to give money back? Matt also unsurprisingly wrote about it. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-15/appraisal-rights-and-tech-fears https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-15/appraisal...

airstrike 9y ago

Appraisal rights lawsuits are essentially trolling in the M&A world. It's a nuisance markets, bankers, lawyers and courts have to deal with, but they're not relevant to anyone who isn't a party to the deal. Dell going public again in no way indicates there will ever be another private buyout. That may or may not happen, and both the market and the industry have changed much since Michael Dell took it private. Different groups of shareholders argued different things... appraisal rights are weird, and at the end of the day 99% of people in Finance will argue that the judge's decision on that case is entirely inconsistent with even the most basic principles of corporate finance and capital markets. Just because one guy who happens to have the power to decide the lawsuit's ultimate fate says his version of the facts is right doesn't mean he is in fact correct.

teemwerk 9y ago

The Dell takeover valuation decision got overturned, which is quite reasonable to say the least. However the valuation do-over was thought to be a solution is beyond me. The question of the case was "was Dell transparent in his direction for the company, and was the market process by which they auctioned off Dell fair and open?" Trying to rend some valuation of the company that no one was willing to pay and deciding 'that's the one' was weird. Of course every group of stakeholders is going to have a different idea of what they're willing to pay for the company, that's why they had a bidding process. If the judge came up with something lower than what Silver Lake and Dell came up with, would the former shareholders have to give money back? Matt also unsurprisingly wrote about it. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-15/appraisal-rights-and-tech-fears https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-15/appraisal...