If Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) can top an buyout offer by Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners to buy Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), the private equity firm may have found an attractive candidate to become chief executive officer — defrocked Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd.
Hurd is currently a co-president of Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL). Oracle founder Larry Ellison mocked the HP board as it let Hurd go because of a modest indiscretion with a female contract workers. Ellison’s praise may be part of the reason Blackstone wants him. The decision of HP’s board was followed by a collapse of that company’s fortunes.
The New York-based private equity firm is carrying out due diligence on Dell ahead of the March 22 expiration of a so-called “go-shop” period that offers interested parties the opportunity to outbid a consortium led by founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners that has agreed to take the company private for $24.4 billion.
Blackstone approached Hurd as part of its deliberations on whether it will submit an offer for Dell, the person said on condition of anonymity. It remains unclear whether Blackstone will make an offer.
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