Paul Singer’s Elliott Management has been active at EMC for several years. Here’s the 2014 letter from Elliott to EMC [link to letter]. Elliott wanted EMC to spinoff its remaining ownership of VMware – it owns about 80%. The battle has since cooled down, with the two inking a standstill agreement earlier this year.
EMC CEO, Joe Tucci, loves the Federation structure, so much that instead of spinning off VMware he might buy up the rest. Especially as the standstill agreement comes to an end next month. EMC could easily divest some noncore businesses to raise cash to buy up VMware. The synergies are too great for a spinoff, with there being a key opportunity for the two to streamline their go to market strategy. It wouldn’t be the first time that Elliott got it wrong.
