Dell buyout vote delay would not lead to higher offer: sources

Credit: Reuters/Bobby Yip

A company logo of Dell is seen on the cover of its laptop at a Dell outlet in Hong Kong October October 21, 2009.

Dell may decide to delay a shareholder vote scheduled for Thursday, July 18, on the offer as the company's special board committee now sees the outcome as too close to call, a person familiar with the matter said earlier on Tuesday.

With a nearly 16 percent stake in Dell and ties going back three decades to the creation of the company out of his college dorm room, Michael Dell is seen as having much more at stake in the deal going through than Silver Lake, a financial investor that often walks away from deals it deems to make no sense.

But the two people with knowledge of Michael Dell's and Silver Lake's plans said on Tuesday that any decision to increase the offer would be taken jointly and that both parties have decided there will not be any bump in their $13.65 per share offer.

The people asked not to be identified because their deliberations are private. Spokespeople for Dell and its special board committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Silver Lake declined to comment.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York)