EMC Corp., a $60 billion tech giant specializing in cloud-based applications, has decided to explore selling its stake in VMware, a 16-year-old software services company, The Post has learned.
The decision to consider putting the Palo Alto, Calif., unit on the block means Joe Tucci, EMC’s chairman and CEO, has given in to billionaire Paul Singer’s pressure, according to a well-placed source familiar with the situation.
Singer’s Elliott Management, which has been famously suing Argentina over some $3 billion in defaulted bonds, has reported a 2 percent stake in EMC and has been pressuring it to exit its 80 percent stake in VMware, which helps computer servers run operating systems.
The company has a $42 billion market cap and provides back-office business software. It operates independently and partners with some EMC competitors
Hewlett-Packard is a possible VMware buyer, one source said. But no category competitor will likely be interested in it, the source added.
“VMware is more of a distraction than anything else,” the source said.
EMC, while weighing the sale of the stake, may also look to put another asset or assets on the block, a second source said.
EMC bought VMware for $600 million in 2004, which has made it a very successful investment over time.
An EMC spokesman declined to comment.
“We have not heard from Elliott Management other than their call to us stating that they are or intend to be one of EMC’s larger investors,” Tucci said on a July earnings call.
“[Elliott] also requested a meeting with me and I have agreed to meet with them as I periodically do with all of our large investors,” Tucci added.
“For the record, and I deeply believe in this principle, we, and we as management and our board of directors, are always open and welcome a dialogue with all of our shareholders,” the EMC chief said. “And we respectfully listen to their ideas and beliefs as we form our strategic direction and policies.”
Singer has been racking up wins in the tech industry.
This month private-equity firm Thoma Bravo agreed to buy Compuware Corp. after Elliott successfully pushed for a company sale.
EMC closed Wednesday up 1 percent to $29.50, near a 52-week high.
Over the past two years, EMC stock has risen less than 10 percent, well below the S&P 500 index’s 40 percent rise.
EMC creates the infrastructure for cloud-computing storage and is building a hybrid cloud allowing customers to either store data in the public or private cloud.