Who will control Dell?

Who will own and control Dell? Silver Lake or Microsoft or Michael Dell-its founder? Looking at the hectic parleys over the last few days, it's increasingly becoming evident that Michael Dell will continue to drive the company. Going by a latest report in Bloomberg news, which said that unnamed sources close to Dell told Bloomberg that Michael Dell will invest up to $ 1 bn of his personal money and this together with his 15.7% stake in the company will make him the majority stake holder in the company. While Silver Lake and Microsoft will pump in up to $ 1bn to $ 3 bn each and the rest is said will come through debt financing or possibly through other potential investors.

But, as we cut through the ownership maze, even in the event of Michael Dell wielding majority control, it will not be business as usual as the top management becoming considerable broad based. So to what extent Michael Dell can wield his authority over company's key decisions relating to the company's critical strategic roadmap for the future. So it will be an uphill task for Michael Dell in bringing all the board members and investors on the same page.

PC market heading south

The biggest challenge for Dell is in creating a synergetic and well meshed management team that is strategically aligned to the industries Dell serves- products and services. The biggest pain ares would be its PC portfolio consisting of - desktops and notebooks and that's not looking good with the onslaught of smartphones and tablets.

Going by a latest IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC tracker, the report pegs the worldwide PC shipments at 89.8 mn units in the fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12), down 6.4% compared to the same quarter in 2011 and worse than the forecasted decline of 4.4%.

The report further says that the quarter marked the beginning of a new stage in the PC industry with the launch of Windows 8, but its impact did not quickly change the sluggish PC demand, The PC market continued to take a back seat to competing devices and sustained economic woes. As a result, the fourth quarter of 2012 marked the first time in more than five years a year-on-year decline during the holiday season.

Dell per se, the IDC report says, "Dell continued to lose ground as it faces aggressive competition from other leaders and it need to look for better margins. Its worldwide shipments were down over 20% year over year - one of faster declines over the past several years - with US volume declining almost as much.

Who controls does not matter

At the end, looking at the PC market outlook over 2013, Dell needs a business plan that will revive its sagging fortunes, but being at # 3 right now, it need to counter very stiff competition from HP and Lenovo- which was placed at # 1 and # 2 in the overall worldwide PC market in terms of units shipments.

Moreover, most of CY Q1 2013, for Dell, its top management time will be consumed with the ‘going private' deal discussions and if it does not seal a deal sooner it will impacts its business pipeline. Moreover, until a new strategy becomes evident, some of its SMB and large customers might put on hold some of their new purchase decisions. So lot of possible ramifications.

In this backdrop - will Michael Dell be able to revive his company to its past glory? Well, right now no one is sure of an answer.