Dell-Perot merger showing quick benefits, officials say

Five weeks after Dell Corp. acquired Perot Systems Inc. in a transaction valued at approximately $3.9 billion, officials at Dell say the integration has gone smoothly with no turf wars and a new batch of contract opportunities.

With the creation of the new Dell Services unit, “Dell now has a comprehensive and growing set of leading solutions that meet customer needs so they can manage their IT most efficiently,” said Peter Altabef, president of Dell Services, in a conference call today.

“Between Sept. 21, when we signed the merger agreement, and Nov. 3, when the transaction was closed, we stood up 17 teams with over 200 individuals from both of the predecessor companies to work into an integration plan that covered everything from sales to delivery to strategy to marketing,” he said.

On Nov. 3, Perot’s 42,000 employees became part of one organization “and that organization is the Dell Services organization,” Altabef added. “All of that heavy lifting was done before Nov. 3, and it turned out that the lifting wasn’t so heavy.”

Altabef said Perot Systems had some important assets in the government sector “that are being brought to bear in the greater Dell Services.”

He singled out Perot Systems’ protected parent structure. It “allows Perot Systems to act as a prime contractor on many [government] contracts and has many contract vehicles that we have been placed on over time. That’s a big deal and a real asset to the combined Dell Services.”

Both organizations have extensive dealings with the government, in particular with the intelligence community, he said. “So we think that there are really, really dramatic opportunities for us in government.”