Blackstone withdrawing bid for Dell, paving the way for a Silver Lake takeover

Private equity firm Blackstone has withdrawn its bid for troubled PC giant Dell, paving the way for a $US24.4 billion takeover by founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Capital.

Blackstone was one of two rival bids against the Silver Lake Capital bid, with investor Carl Icahn also launching his own bid for the company.

Reuters reports three sources close to Blackstone has walked away from its bid, while Dell claims Icahn has signed an agreement not to increase his stake in the tech giant above 10%, although the billionaire investor maintains he has the right to launch a proxy vote battle for control of the company.

Dell is currently the world’s third largest PC vendor behind HP and Lenovo, with around 11.8% global marketshare.

Blackstone’s decision to drop its bid for the computer maker comes after figures showed global PC shipments dropped by a massive 13.9% for the March quarter, with Dell believed to have suffered a 10.9% drop in its shipments.

The decline was confirmed last week, with chipmaker Intel announcing last week it expects a year-on-year revenue drop of up to 8%.

The growing popularity of tablet computers, coupled with the failure of consumers to adopt Windows 8, have been cited as key reasons for the decline.