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戴尔周一接近敲定230亿美元的私有化交易-第1页

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Michael Dell bristles when his personal-computer company is compared with Apple Inc.


迈克尔•戴尔(Michael Dell)的个人电脑公司被人拿来与苹果公司(Apple Inc.)进行比较的时候，他会勃然大怒。



As Apple gobbled market share with the iPhone and iPad, Dell Inc.'s chief executive instead faced crumbling PC market share and stagnantrevenue growth at the company he founded in his University of Texas dorm room almost 30 years ago.


在苹果凭借iPhone和iPad抢占了大量市场份额之际，戴尔公司(Dell Inc.)首席执行长近30年前在得克萨斯大学(University of Texas)宿舍中创办的公司，却面临着个人电脑市场份额大幅下滑和收入增长停滞不前的局面。



When conversations shifted to Apple, Mr. Dell's body would tighten up and he would become withdrawn, said former Dell executives. At other times, the CEO would celebrate minor victories, like a school district's decision to buy Dell computers.


据戴尔公司的数位前高管说，当话题转到苹果时，戴尔先生的身体会僵硬起来，他会变得沉默寡言。有的时候，戴尔先生会庆祝小小的胜利，比如一个学区决定购买戴尔电脑。



While Dell won some of those battles, Mr. Dell refused to acknowledge that his company was 'getting killed in the war,' said one former Dell executive.


一位前戴尔公司高管说，尽管戴尔公司赢得了部分战斗，但戴尔先生拒绝承认他的公司正在输掉整场战争。



Now Mr. Dell may make public comparisons to Apple moot with a drastic step: taking Dell private in a leveraged buyout valued at more than $23 billion.


如今，戴尔先生提出的一项极端举措可能让外界将他的公司与苹果进行公开比较，他的这一步就是通过规模逾230亿美元的杠杆收购交易将戴尔公司私有化。



Dell is close to completing a deal that would give Mr. Dell the largest stake in the company and include private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners and software giant Microsoft Corp. as investors, said people familiar with the matter.


据知情人士透露，戴尔公司接近完成一项交易，该交易将使戴尔先生在公司拥有最多的持股，交易的投资者包括私募股权投资公司银湖(Silver Lake Partners)和软件巨头微软(Microsoft Corp.)。



A buyout would be an admission by Mr. Dell that the changes needed to get his company's revenue and profits growing again are too difficult to pull off while under Wall Street's glare. At the same time, the buyout will ensure that the 47-year-old is the one who gets to oversee any changes.


这桩收购案无异于说明戴尔先生承认，在华尔街的众目睽睽之下，使公司收入和利润恢复增长所需的改革难以完成。与此同时，收购将确保，无论该公司进行任何改革，47岁的戴尔先生都将是负责监督改革的那个人。



Overall, interviews with more than 10 current and former Dell executives, plus other people who know the CEO, paint a picture of a man who appears increasingly worried about his legacy and whether the board would try to push him aside. These people said it has been years since Mr. Dell showed the enthusiasm he did when he reclaimed the title of CEO in 2007 after a short period where he served only as chairman of the PC maker.


总的来说，通过对10多位现任和前任戴尔公司高管及其他认识戴尔先生的人的采访，可以勾勒出这样一个人，他似乎越来越担心自己的遗产，担心董事会是否试图排挤他。这些人说，戴尔先生已有多年未显示出他2007年重掌首席执行长权杖时表现出来的热情了。在那之前的一小段时间内，他仅担任戴尔公司的董事长。



Now with Dell's share price down more than 44% since Mr. Dell's return and the company on the precipice, the people said the move to take the computer maker private is as much about Dell the man as Dell the company. 'It's pretty simple: His (Michael's) name is on the door,' said one former Dell executive.


如今，自戴尔先生重登首席执行长之位以来，公司股价暴跌逾44%，公司局势岌岌可危，在这种情况下，上述人士说，将这家电脑生产商私有化的举措既关乎戴尔公司也关乎戴尔先生。一位前戴尔公司高管说，非常简单：他（迈克尔）的名字刻在公司大门上。



Mr. Dell, who proactively sought to take Dell private by approaching the company's board of directors over the summer, didn't respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Round Rock, Texas, company declined comment.


戴尔先生去年夏天接触公司董事会，积极寻求将戴尔公司私有化。他没有回复记者的置评请求。总部位于得克萨斯州朗德罗克的戴尔公司的发言人拒绝置评。



Mr. Dell hasn't said where he might take a privately held Dell, but the company has spent billions in recent years acquiring a portfolio of services and products, including storage systems and security software, with an eye toward reinventing itself as a smaller International Business Machines Corp. IBM -0.68% It paid $3.9 billion for technology-outsourcing firm Perot Systems Corp. in 2009 and $2.4 billion for Quest Software in 2012, and made many smaller deals. Last year, it formed a unit focused on selling software to businesses.


戴尔先生一直未透露他可能带领一个私人持有的戴尔公司走向何方，但该公司近年来花费数十亿美元收购了一系列的服务和产品，包括存储系统和安全软件，寻求将自己重新打造成一个小型的国际商业机器公司(IBM)。2009年，戴尔公司斥资39亿美元收购了科技外包公司Perot Systems Corp.，2012年斥资24亿美元收购了Quest Software，此外该公司还进行了很多规模更小的交易。去年，戴尔公司成立了一个专注于向企业销售软件的部门。



Analysts said Dell now has most of the pieces it needs to become a one-stop technology shop. But it has to make those pieces work together, both technologically and organizationally. A private Dell could focus on that and possibly exit some lower-margin parts of the PC business, such as retail sales to consumers, they said.


分析人士说，戴尔公司目前具备了成为一家综合科技公司所需的大部分构件。但它必须使这些构件在技术上和组织上都能够良好地协调合作。他们说，一个私人持有的戴尔公司可能专注于这个问题，并可能退出一些利润率较低的个人电脑业务，比如面向消费者的零售业务。



Meanwhile, the company's revenue has largely stayed flat since fiscal 2008, when it had sales of $61 billion; in the fiscal year ended February 2012, sales were $62 billion. And while the fiscal 2012 profit of $3.5 billion was near an all-time high, Dell is on track to report a substantial decline this fiscal year.


与此同时，戴尔公司的收入自2008财年以来基本上停滞不前，当时它的销售额为610亿美元；在截至2012年2月的财年，销售额为620亿美元。尽管2012财年实现利润35亿美元，接近戴尔公司有史以来的高点，但该公司本财年很可能公布利润大幅下滑。



Mr. Dell has long been accustomed to success. After founding the PC maker in 1984, it became the largest seller of the machines in the world by the time Mr. Dell stepped aside from the CEO job in 2004.


戴尔先生长期以来习惯于成功。1984年他成立了这家个人电脑生产商，到2004年他辞去首席执行长一职前，该公司成为全球最大的个人电脑销售商。



Mr. Dell's net worth is currently estimated at around $14 billion. He founded MSD Capital LP in 1998 to manage his fortune, and while he wasn't CEO between 2004 and 2007, he used MSD to purchase a pair of resorts in Hawaii. He later bought a third resort.


据估计戴尔先生的净资产目前约为140亿美元。他在1998年创立MSD Capital LP来管理自己的财富。他在2004至2007年没有担任戴尔公司首席执行长期间利用MSD在夏威夷购买了两处度假房产。后来他又购买了第三处度假房产。



Meanwhile, Dell lost its PC crown in 2006 as the computer market became increasinglydriven by sales to consumers at retail stores, an area that Dell shunned in favor of direct sales. When Mr. Dell returned in January 2007, he promised to reposition the company for the new age.


与此同时，随着通过零售商店向用户销售电脑的模式日益推动电脑市场的发展，戴尔公司在2006年失去了全球个人电脑销售冠军的宝座。由于戴尔公司倾向直销，因此该公司较为回避零售渠道。戴尔先生在2007年1月重新担任公司首席执行长时，他承诺对公司进行重新定位，以应对新时代的挑战。



Mr. Dell brought in several new executives, including ones to run operations, marketing and lead Dell's consumer push. But while sales grew during Mr. Dell's first year back, he couldn't sustain the momentum. The operations and marketing chiefs left after less than two years. The consumer chief left in 2010, after failed attempts at music players, phones and high-end laptops.


戴尔引入了一些新的高层管理人员，其中包括负责运营、市场营销以及带领戴尔进军消费市场的三位高管。虽然在戴尔先生回归后的第一年，公司销售收入出现上升，但他没能保持这一势头。负责运营和市场营销的主管在入职不到两年后就离职。负责消费市场的那位高管也在2010年离职，此前其尝试的音乐播放器、手机和高端笔记本电脑等项目均以失败告终。



Mr. Dell stopped acting like a cheerleader for the company in meetings, the people who worked with him said. And the CEO began taking a step back from public scrutiny. In 2011, he stopped making prepared remarks on Dell's earnings calls, leaving that to his finance chief and other lieutenants.


同戴尔先生共事过的人说，在开会时戴尔不再表现得像公司的啦啦队长一样。同时他开始淡出公众视野。在2011年，他停止在戴尔公司的业绩分析电话会议上做事前准备好的讲话，他把这一工作留给他的财务总监和其他副手。



Mr. Dell still dominated operational reviews, said people who attended the meetings, and he appeared to focus more on minutiae than big strategic decisions. Several years ago, Mr. Dell wrote a four-page memo after he first played with the XPS One, a high-end desktop that embedded all its parts inside the monitor. Mr. Dell's notes, sent late the night he received the machine, included his thoughts on the Styrofoam used to package the computer.


据与会者透露，在公司业务运营方面，戴尔先生仍然占据着话语权。同时他似乎更加侧重细节，而不是重大战略决策。几年前，在首次试用高端台式机XPS One之后，戴尔先生写了一篇四页纸的备忘录。XPS One将所有零部件都嵌入到电脑显示器中。戴尔先生在他收到电脑的当天晚间发送了他所写的备忘录，其中包括他对用于包装电脑的泡沫塑料的想法。



Some Dell employees jokingly called Mr. Dell the Chief Bezel Officer because of his habit of sending detail-filled, late-night emails.


一些戴尔公司的员工将戴尔先生戏称为"首席细节官"，因为他总喜欢在深夜发送那些满是细节内容的电子邮件。



The people who worked with Mr. Dell say he is guarded and reserved and doesn't show his emotions much. They say he is happiest when dealing with engineers or he gets his hands on a product.


曾与戴尔先生共事的人说，他非常谨慎，寡言，不轻易表露情感。这些人说，只有在同工程师打交道或在研究产品时他才是最快乐的。



By late 2010, Mr. Dell had largely abandoned his efforts to develop products for consumers and advocated a new path to become a one-stop shop for businesses. He spent billions acquiring makers of security software, storage systems and other products as it built up its portfolio of these offerings.


到2010年末，戴尔先生基本上已经放弃了为消费者开发产品的努力。他开始倡导一种新的模式，即为企业提供一站式服务。为此他斥资数十亿美元收购安全软件、存储系统和其它产品制造商，同时打造出戴尔公司自己的产品组合。



The products for businesses have a higher margin than PCs, but so far haven't been able to offset declines in the PC business, which still accounts for half of Dell's annual $62 billion in revenue. Overall, PC sales dropped 13% in the first three quarters of the company's fiscal 2013. Total revenue was down 7% over that period.


相比个人电脑，为企业提供的产品具有较高的利润率。但到目前为止，这还没有能够抵消个人电脑业务下滑所带来的负面影响。在戴尔公司每年620亿美元的收入中，个人电脑业务的占比仍然达到一半。总体而言，在该公司2013财年的前三个季度，个人电脑销售下降了13%。同期总收入下降了7%。



Mr. Dell has tried to position Dell as something other than a PC company, pointing out that the machines account for just a third of Dell's profits. The people who have worked with him expect some changes to the PC business, but don't anticipate Mr. Dell will stop making PCs altogether.


戴尔先生一直试图将戴尔公司定位为一家不仅仅是生产个人电脑的企业。他指出个人电脑在戴尔公司的利润中占比仅为三分之一。曾同戴尔一起共事的人预计该公司的个人电脑业务会出现一些变化，但他们认为戴尔先生不会完全停止生产个人电脑。



Indeed, Mr. Dell has appeared wedded to PCs. When rival Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ -1.70% briefly considered spinning out its PC business in 2011, Mr. Dell in private conversations derided the idea as a big mistake.


事实上，戴尔先生看来已经"嫁给"了个人电脑。当竞争对手惠普公司(Hewlett-Packard Co.)在2011年曾短暂考虑拆分其个人电脑业务时，戴尔先生在私下谈话时曾嘲笑过这一想法，认为这是一个巨大的错误。



In a moment of candor, Mr. Dell has acknowledged that some of the PC industry's changes caught him unaware. When asked in a 2011 interview with The Wall Street Journal what surprised him most since he returned as Dell CEO in 2007, Mr. Dell said the rise of tablets had been unexpected for him.


戴尔先生有时也会坦率地承认，他确实未能察觉个人电脑产业的某些变化。在2011年接受《华尔街日报》采访时，戴尔先生曾被问及自2007年重新担任戴尔公司首席执行长以来，最令他感到意外的是什么。戴尔先生说，平板电脑的崛起确实是他没想到的。



'I didn't completely see that coming,' he said, before adding that he didn't anticipate business users would give up PCs soon.


戴尔先生说：我完全没有预见到这个趋势。不过他也说，他并不认为企业用户会很快放弃个人电脑。



Meanwhile, Mr. Dell has continued working on other parts of his legacy, partly through his family's charitable foundation. Last week, the foundation donated $50 million to the University of Texas to establish the Dell Medical School.


与此同时，戴尔先生还在继续完善他能给后人留下的东西，这部分是通过他家族的慈善基金会来运作的。上周，该基金会向德克萨斯大学捐赠5,000万美元，以建立戴尔医学院(Dell Medical School)。



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