William, I'm just noodling around how MD could stand IBM, CPQ, HWP, and GTW on their collective ears.
Now if I was sitting on 4B+ of cash and increased the number of authorized shares, I wouldn't fiddle with a narrow band of acquisitions that kept me in the narrow white box paradigm (or whatever the white boxes will become) for the next 10 years.
I'd go straight for CMGI whose stock is approximately 37% off its high this year (9.67B current market cap, 93.36M shares outstanding, last trade $103 5/8). If I had to pay a 50% control premium, approximating an acquisition cost of $150 per share ($300 per share pre split), I'd issue $14.5B in additional stock (or approx 421M additional shares) in a pooling of interests. Then I'd use DELL cash to accelerate the ramp up of CMGI entities.
The payoff? Sheer manic enthusiasm for Dell stock through the possible massive returns on invested capital through approximately 60 - 90 Inet IPOs over the next 5 years. And control of one of the most innovative developers of web-based businesses. And leaving the stigma of being just another box maker (albeit the best) behind, once and for all.
I know you're probably wondering what I put in my pipe these days, but that's the kind of bold stroke that would leave analysts reeling...
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And it's just my opinion,
Mark A. Peterson |
