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| ShockWaffle wrote: Doesn't he normally just build up a stake and then tell the managers to hive off under-performing units or else stop hoarding glorious war chests? Outside of Hollywood fictions, that doesn't destroy companies | |
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No, with Dell, he wanted an extra $4bn from the new investors, if they wanted to buy out the company, over and above its market value. Basically he was trying to bankrupt the company as it went private. If he had won, Dell would have been out of business by the time it went private and if the board then rejected going private they would have had to pay a $4bn or so forfeit to the shareholders, leaving it in bad shape and ripe for another takeover or bankruptcy.
With eBay, he wanted them to sell off PayPal and then pay out what they got for the sale. He also wanted to sue the board, because they sold off Skype for a pittance. By its next sale it had increased dramatically in value - no wonder, eBay had left it to rot and the private equity firm invested a lot in getting it back on track; but Markus Andresen (board of eBay and part of the Andresen Horowitz equity firm which bought Skype) was his main target, even though Andresen recused himself in all dealings with the sale of Skype.
With Apple, as well as a payout, he was saying that the stock price was 20% below what it should be.
From the cases that appear in the press, he is just out there to asset strip the company as quickly as possible, get a good dividend and sell off before the share price collapses, because the company can no longer do business, while all its key divisions which were generating revenue have been sold off and the cash reserves plundered.