Blackstone Expects Silver Lake to Win Dell Bidding War [REPORT]

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) “waived a non-compete clause” to allow David Johnson, a former Dell executive who is now at The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX), to work on the Blackstone-Dell deal, FOX Business Network (FBN) Senior Correspondent Charlie Gasparino reports. Gasparino also reports that people inside Blakstone think “their odds are less than 50 percent” to win the bid and that they believe “Silver Lake is going to prevail” in the bidding war.

Excerpts from the report are below.

On the buyout bids for Dell:

“Dell waived a non-compete clause for a former executive to work on the Blackstone bid. His name is David Johnson, he joined Blackstone from Dell back in January. He is now working on the bid. They waived a non-compete clause that was on his contract so he can work on this, so that is one reason why they think this thing is management friendly, why Blackstone does have a shot because a former Dell executive would be part of the management team. The second thing we learned when we talked to people at Blackstone is that they really think they are not in the driver’s seat and that their odds are less than 50 percent to win this thing. They think that Silver Lakes is going to prevail, Silver Lakes and Michael Dell, the combined bid. ”