Dell Adjourns Vote on Sale as Some Big Investors Start to Shift

Dell Inc. adjourned a vote on its proposed $24.4 billion sale to its

founder on Thursday morning, signaling that the planned transaction

lacked enough support from shareholders. The meeting has been

rescheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern time.

But a number of big institutional investors switched their votes to

"yes" overnight, said a person briefed on the matter, signaling hope

that the leveraged buyout was still viable.



That group – including the Vanguard Group, BlackRock and the State

Street Corporation – had previously indicated opposition to the deal.



The moves indicate the kind of gamesmanship that has surrounded the

transaction in recent days. Advisers to the transaction believe that

many investors were simply bluffing to try obtain a higher offer from

the buyout team of Michael S. Dell and the investment firm Silver

Lake.



A large group of investors, which included the three big money

managers as well as Invesco and the Bank of New York Mellon, switched

their vote to "yes" sometime around midnight, the person briefed on

the matter said.



One investor whose vote is still being awaited is Franklin Resources,

this person added.

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