EMC staffers: We are crashing into Dell within weeks

Deal a go-go unless Chinese anti-trust regulators play tough

Staffers at EMC and its subsidiaries are to get Dell email addresses from the start of next month as the proposed mega buy edges closer, insiders have told The Register.

EMC shareholders last night approved the $62.4bn bid – somewhat lower than the original $67bn offer due to a slide in VMware’s share price – and Chinese anti-trust regulators represent the final stumbling block.

The merger was expected to happen between May and October but EMCers contacted us to say things are progressing at a rapid pace.

“All employees will be issued @dell.com addresses by 2 August, with ID cards to be rolled out to local offices, and Dell laptops to follow soon after,” one tipster claimed.

“This is the target date,” our source added, “if for some reason the China regulatory approvals hold things up, the date will be pushed out to 1 September but I don’t see this happening.”

The integration teams are ferreting away in the background, as expected, “the amount of work going on behind the scenes is incredible” an employee said. Former Dell’s global channel boss Greg Davis is one of the senior figures leading this merger work.

EMC sales and pre-sales employees have already begun to receive Dell XPS devices we are told, and veeps in the emerging technology groups are set to meet in Seattle this week, we are told.

The buy will make Dell the biggest maker of infrastructure gear in the industry, more than twice the size of former kingpin Hewlett Packard, which split into HP Inc and HPE last November.

HP pulled off the split without any massive hitches, so it is more than possible these types of big events can be executed relatively smoothly, though EMC merging with Dell is a complex thing.

Some 98 per cent of EMC shareholders last night backed the sale to Dell, equating to 74 per cent of EMC’s outstanding common stock.

Dell has borrowed around $40bn to finance the buy, it has sold Perot Systems and is offloading software assets to private equity people.

Dell refused to comment on email addresses or PCs being given to EMC staff, or on the financials of the deal but it reiterated the expectation of closing the buy in October. ®