Dell confirms public market return through complex VMware share deal

Dell Technologies will become a public company again in confirmation of various media reports and analyst speculation over what the global PC giant will do next.

The company is undertaking a complex transaction to acquire shares that track the performance of VMware in a return to the public markets, Dell said Sunday. Dell created those shares in 2016 to help finance the acquisition of EMC in a deal that also brought an 82-percent stake in virtualization giant VMware.

Some media reports prior to this announcement suggested Dell would look to acquire VMware outright but this deal leaves the latter alone for the time being. VMware will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange on the "VMW" ticket symbol.

Founder Michael Dell and investment firm Silver Lake took the company private in 2013 through a $25 billion buyout. The PC maker has since sought to recast itself as a end-to-end provider of virtualization and storage offerings.

Dell climbed two spots to No. 32 on the 2018 Washington Technology Top 100 rankings with $782.5 million in prime contracting obligations.

That shift by Dell also resulted in its decision to sell its services business to NTT Data in 2016 for $3.05 billion. That business was once known as Perot Systems, which Dell acquired in 2009 for $3.9 billion.

The newly-announced deal comes five months after Dell laid out a possible reverse merger with VMware as one of several strategic options as a way to return as a public company. Dell also looked at a traditional public offering, as well as the option to stay the course.