Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) may be back in the fray in its bid to buy Perot Systems, Dell Inc's IT management business, according to media reports on Tuesday. TCS is reportedly one of four companies bidding for Perot Systems.
On Monday, Re/code reported, citing sources, that France-based Atos – one of the four companies interested in the company – was close to buying Perot from Dell with an offer valued between $4.2 billion and $4.3 billion, and added that TCS had given up its bid after holding talks with Dell late last week. However, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter, that the Indian IT giant was among those bidding for the Plano, Texas-based firm.
TCS has reportedly been in talks for Perot Systems since last year, and became a bidder again only in the last few days, according to Reuters. Dell had reportedly sought to make over $5 billion from the sale, the report said, adding that it was unlikely that Perot Systems – which was acquired by Dell in 2009 for $3.9 billion -- would fetch that amount. The Economic Times first reported that TCS was still keen on buying Perot Systems.
Perot Systems, which provides IT consulting to hospitals and government agencies, was founded by American billionaire and former US presidential candidate Ross Perot in 1988. Dell, which is now seeking to focus on cloud computing, business software and data management, is seeking to generate as much as $10 billion to reduce its debt burden with the sale of Perot Systems and other units, according to reports.
Dell has also been in talks with private equity firms to sell Quest Software, which assists with IT management, and Sonic Wall, which is an e-mail encryption and data security provider. The combined value of these assets is estimated to be $4 billion.
Dell is slated to buy EMC Corp by October 2016 in a $67 billion deal that is yet to be approved by EMC shareholders, The Economic Times reported.
