Dell acquires MessageOne, which is also a sibling’s company
16 Feb 2008
Dell has acquired MessageOne, a maker of email-management software, at a cost of $155 million, in cash.
MessageOne was co-founded by Adam Dell, the lesser-known Dell from Michael Dell's family, amongst other Dell family members as investors. Adam Dell will receive about $970,000 from the sale, according to SEC filings.
Michael Dell, wife Susan, and their children will collect around $12 million, which the company says they will donate to charity, and Dell's parents will make about $450,000.
A note in the SEC filing clarified that Michael Dell had no involvement in the decision to buy MessageOne, which the company says will help businesses desirous of outsourcing the management of their tech equipment to Dell.
Reports indicate that a driver in the decision to buy MessageOne could be the desire to boost its bottom line by way of adding profitable revenue streams. One of the ways of doing that would be to leverage its business relationships from selling tech equipment to sell services as well, in this case remote monitoring and maintenance of data centres. IBM followed a similar transition path in its lifecycle from computer market to solutions provider.
