An Unusual EMC Response to Elliott on Divesting VMware Proposition

By Jon C. Ogg Published Oct 8, 3:18PM EDT

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EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) has formally responded to the letter issued by activist investment advisor Elliott Management for EMC to begin the process to divest its super-majority voting stake in virtualization leader VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW). What is so interesting about the response is that its response is only about 124 words and it really says nothing more than “We got this.”

What is so interesting about the move to split VMware out of EMC is that this is not the first such suggestion to break these up. Many analysts and market participants evaluated VMware as an independent company not long after VMware was spun out in an IPO.

24/7 Wall St. has decided to use the exact wording of EMC’s response to avoid any changes at all in how this is interpreted. The response is as follows:

EMC’s Board of Directors regularly reviews and rigorously evaluates the company’s strategy with a view towards enhancing shareholder value. As part of this ongoing process, the Board welcomes open dialogue with EMC shareholders and values their constructive input. Over the past few months, EMC’s leadership has met with representatives of Elliott several times and has listened carefully to their ideas, as we do with all of our shareholders.

In the course of its business, EMC regularly hears from customers and partners, around the world, strong expressions of support for its strategy as well as ability to serve their evolving range of needs in a rapidly changing and complex IT marketplace increasingly being defined by cloud computing, predictive big data analytics, and always-connected mobile devices.

So, EMC said simply (paraphrased) we encourage input and we heard the input, and we regularly hear support from customers and partners about what our strategy has been and is….

VMware shares were up 1.4% at $92.68 shortly before the closing bell against a 52-week range of $76.51 to $112.89. The consensus analyst price target for VMware shares is $110.95. EMC shares were up 2.1% at $28.74 shortly before Wednesday’s closing bell. Its 52-week range is $23.15 to $30.18, and the consensus analyst target price for EMC is $32.29.

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As far as how the size of these two compare, EMC’s market cap is $58.3 billion and VMware’s market cap is $39.9 billion.

About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. a673b.bigscoots-temp.com.