Dell-EMC merger is a massive gain for the channel: Praveen Sahai

The Dell-EMC merger is a massive gain for the entire channel ecosystem and the channel is going to get tremendous out of the $67 billion acquisition deal, said Praveen Sahai, VP, Channels, EMC India and SAARC. Sahai said that the merger would not only enable the two technology giants to further strengthen their leading position in the market but benefit the partners at large.

In an exclusive interaction with the DQ Week, Sahai said, “The acquisition will have a lot of positive impact on the overall system integration and partners will get tremendous out of the deal. They will get a complete ecosystem of the server and client technology and the best of the world of enterprise technology.”

“EMC is known for its enterprise solutions across the world. We lead in terms of market share in most of the countries, including India for most of our technologies. Dell leads in the most of the space they have and if you combine it together, partners are going to gain”, he said.

Ruling out the possibility of disruption in the channel ecosystem post acquisition, Sahai said that the areas Dell works are very different from the area we work. Therefore, the overlap is minimal. “Dell has been very strong in the SME and consumer space. We have a leading position in the area of the top end of the mid market and the enterprise. So when we look at the ecosystem play, I think we have huge benefits specifically for the partner ecosystem”, he said.

On the query whether EMC retains its brand name or it will merge with Dell, Sahai said that it was too early to comment and the decision would be taken at the board level after the completion of the acquisition process.

“I am not in a position to answer whether the brand will stay or it will revoke at the moment. It will be decided in discussion at a board level. Let the acquisition process get complete and processes will be cleared after that only. EMC has a philosophy of keeping the brands separate and creating a federation of companies and there is always freedom of business. I believe that there will be something very sensible coming out for the partners”, Sahai said.

The $67 billion Dell-EMC merger deal was the major highlight point of 2015. Claimed to be the largest and most expensive technology deal so far, Dell has agreed to acquire data storage vendor EMC for approximately $67bn. The deal brings together two of the world’s largest technology companies with leadership positions in servers, storage, virtualization and PCs.

According to the deal, EMC shareholders would receive a total combined consideration of $33.15 per EMC share, that includes $24.05 per share in cash in addition to securities tied to the value of VMware. VMware, however, will remain a publicly-traded company. The transaction is expected to be financed through a combination of new common equity from Michael S. Dell, MSD Partners, Silver Lake and Temasek, the issuance of tracking stock, as well as new debt financing and cash on hand. Michael Dell and related stockholders will own approximately 70 percent of the company’s common equity, excluding the tracking stock, similar to their pre-transaction ownership.

Following completion of the transaction, Michael Dell will lead the combined company as chairman and chief executive officer. Joe Tucci will continue as chairman and chief executive officer of EMC until the transaction closes. The transaction is expected to close in the second or third quarter of Dell’s fiscal year ending February 3, 2017 (within the months of May to October 2016).