Dell Said to Hire Evercore to Seek Higher Bids After Buyout Dell Inc. (DELL), which may announce this week it’s being taken private by a group led by sony vaio vpcs11v9e/b blu-ray driveSilver Lake Management LLC, hired Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR) to advise a special committee of the board and to test whether the company could get a better offer,toshiba satellite l500-1xd blu-ray drive said two people with knowledge of the matter. Dell hired the boutique investment bank to run a so-called go-shop process should a buyout be formalized, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private. Dell expects shareholder lawsuits if a deal is announced, said the people, and the go-shop process will show whether there are superior offers from other buyout firms or companies. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is the main bank advising Round Rock, Texas-based Dell on its talks with Silver Lake, people familiar with the process have said.hp-compaq 513197-800 Dell sees the hiring of Evercore and other steps it’ssony vaio vgn-sr51mf/p blu-ray drive putting in place as protections against lawsuits and other criticisms of the buyout, said one of these people. Silver Lake and its partners are close to lining up about $15 billion in funds for a buyout of Dell, the third-biggest maker of personal computers, people familiar with the situation said last week. The deal would likely value Dell between $23 billionhp touchsmart 620-1170 slot dvd drive and $24 billion, said one of these people. Big Stake Leveraged buyouts are often the subject of shareholder scrutiny when management holds a big stake. Under the current negotiations, Michael Dell, the top shareholder in the computer maker, would roll his stake into the buyout, said one of the people. Dell, 47, owns about 15.7 percent of the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg,sony vaio vgn-sr39vn/s blu-ray drive valuing his stake at $3.45 billion, based on the closing price Jan. 18. Dell, which lost almost a third of its value last year, is struggling amid competition from tablet makers such as Apple Inc. (AAPL) Going private may give Dell more room to overhaul the company’s corporate structure and focus on data-center equipment instead of PCs. Dell spokesman David Frink declined to comment yesterday. A spokesman for Evercore declined to comment. A JPMorgan spokeswoman also declined to commentsony vaio vgn-sr29vn/s blu-ray drive. Shares of Dell rose less than 1 percent to $12.84 in trading on Jan. 18. The stock is down 23 percent in the past year. Dell's part of the Win-Tel system. It sells Computers using Windows (MSFT) Software, and Intel Microprocessors. INTEL just reported that PC Sales using Windows were DOWN 6% last year (resulted in Intel's own sales going down 3% in 2012 vs. 2011, and profits plunge of 27%) sony vaio vgn-sr19xn blu-ray drive-- and INTEL BLAMED IT ON WINDOWS SYSTEMS LOSING MARKET SHARE, and Windows 8 has not turned the tide, Intel said. That being the case, what's a business like DELL worth, since its business is mostly Microsoft/Intel Clone Computers, that are now in Declining sales. What PE should a company have in a segment with DECLINING SALES (not merely slow growth)? Even if you can get 5% dividend or 10% pos. cash-flow from such a company, but it sales are going down 3% per year and profits plunging 20% per year, is not he real return from buying such a company -10% or more per year? Its not like a company paying 4% dividend per year but still growing profits 5% per year. Here the sales and earnings are "hooked to declining Microsoft Windows systems", so your dividend is more than wiped out by declining sales and profits every year. Dell derives most of its revenue from traditional PCs and servers. Once the number one PC manufacturer Dell has fallen behind Both Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo. What's worse,lenovo ideapad u550 blu-ray drive the market for PCs is weakening. Global shipments in Q4 of 2012 declined 4.9% year-on-year, meaning that Dell is third string in a declining industry. This decline is largely due to the rapid adoption of tablets by casual computer users. There will always be a market for desktop and laptop computers, especially in the enterprise, but I suspect that many people who use computers mainly to browse the internet will choosehp-compaq 660407-001 a tablet over a laptop for their next purchase. Much like HP, Dell has been attempting to follow in the footsteps of IBM (NYSE: IBM) and become more service orientated. In 2004 IBM sold its PC division, including the popular Thinkpad line, to Lenovo. This turned out to be a prescient move as IBM was able to focus only on areas where it had a durable advantage, building itself an economic moat and spurring a large investment from Warren Buffett. Dell has been on an acquisition spree as of late: a list of recent acquisitions can be seen here. There's a concern that Dell overpaid for some of these companies much like HP did before Meg Whitman took control as CEO. This could lead to big write-offs down the road.