Should Microsoft buy a stake in Dell?

A deal could be a hardware-software match made in heaven

Dell CEO Michael Dell
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Dell is reportedly in talks for a private buyout, which would allow the struggling computer-maker to craft a turnaround strategy without the pressure of pleasing shareholders every quarter. On Tuesday, CNBC reported that software giant Microsoft is considering joining the buyout with a $1 billion to $3 billion investment that would give it as much as a 13 percent stake in Dell. Both companies declined to comment on the report.

In some respects, it would make sense for Microsoft to buy a chunk of Dell. Like Hewlett-Packard, Dell was late to the smartphone and tablet party, but the company remains the world's third-largest producer of personal computers. Furthermore, Dell has a strong business selling computers to corporate customers, an area that Apple and Google are trying to wriggle into. If Dell were to decline further, that would be bad news for Microsoft, which is reliant on Dell and other PC-makers to run its Windows 8 operating system. As David Goldman writes at CNN Money:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.