Michael Dell, Dell Inc. founder, increased his initial US $24.4 billion bid with an additional US $ 150 million Wednesday.
The offer increase was made on condition that certain changes are made to the shareholder voting rules to smoothen the process of taking the third largest computer maker private.
Dell and Silver Lake, the company's private equity backer, has announced that the improved bid will be their final proposal in the series of offers made over the previous seven months of negotiations.
"According to our latest tally, approximately 27 percent of the unaffiliated shares have not yet been voted. The presumption that these shares should be treated as if they had voted against the transaction is patently unfair," stated Michael Dell and backer Silver Lake. "The will of the majority of the unaffiliated shares voting on the transaction should not be thwarted by an unfair standard that counts unaffiliated shares not voting as "no" votes."
The bid increase was made before a new vote on the the buyout proposal could be initiated. The move elicited outrage and opposition from billionaire Carl Icahn, Pzena Investment Management, Southeastern Asset Management and other major investors.
Pzena Investment Management founder Richard Pzena described the new proposal as "outrageous"
"Certainly the 10 cents wouldn't sway anybody so they have to change the rules, and if the special committee goes along with this, it would be a travesty," according to Pzena, whose company owned 0.73% of outstanding shares in Dell at the end of March.
The next shareholder meeting has been rescheduled to August 2.
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