CRN Exclusive: Dell's Marius Haas Tells Partners EMC Merger Is On Schedule; Program Will Combine Best Of Both

A top executive at Dell has reached out to the company's partners to confirm that the acquisition of data storage giant EMC is on schedule, and assure them that the firms are working hard to integrate channel programs.

"Our channel partner community is critical to our success now and into the future, and we believe with this combination Dell will be able to offer the broadest, most comprehensive array of products and solutions globally," Chief Commercial Officer and President of Enterprise Solutions Marius Haas wrote in an email to partners Friday.

The structure of the channel partner business will be established in the coming months, and the executives in charge of the integration of Dell and EMC's partner programs aim to "preserve and build on the best of both [companies'] channel programs to deliver (an) even stronger experience when the transaction closes," Haas said. "It's our plan that this future channel program will bring together the best elements of the Dell PartnerDirect Program and EMC's Business Partner Program."

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"I absolutely expect them to work through all the steps and make it happen," said Mark McKeever, principal at Tempe, Ariz.-based Dell partner MicroAge. Dell is Micro Age's largest vendor partner by revenue, and McKeever said his company saw 30 percent revenue growth year-over-year with Dell last year.

MicroAge "is very interested in getting into the enterprise storage market," McKeever said. "The merger will be extremely helpful to that end. Dell has executed about as well as possible in (establishing) an indirect channel the past several years, and we're just killing it with Dell right now."

The acquisition is expected to close between May and October, and will cost Dell about $60 billion. Haas said the merger would create "the essential infrastructure company with the ability to address large and small customers' rapidly changing IT needs."

The deal has gained antitrust approval from both the U.S. and the European Union, and Dell has already outlined how portions of its executive leadership will be structured. Last week, Dell agreed to sell its Perot Systems business to Japan's NTT Data for just under $3.1 billion as part of an effort to sell off assets to offset some of the cost of the merger. Dell could take on as much as $49.5 billion in debt to make the transaction work.

Here's Haas' letter to partners:

To Our Valued Partners,

In the last month, we have seen a great deal of progress and momentum in our plans to combine Dell with EMC. I wanted to provide our partner community with an update on the transaction and next steps as you take this journey with us.

As I hope you know by now, the combination of Dell and EMC will create the essential infrastructure company with the ability to address large and small customers’ rapidly changing IT needs with a leadership position in 20 Gartner Magic Quadrants. Both companies have a demonstrated ability to win in fast-changing markets. Being privately controlled, along with our investments in R&D and innovation, will give us unmatched scale, strength and flexibility to help our customers and partners achieve their goals.

We will continue to do everything in our power to support and equip you with the best products, solutions, and programs in the industry to be successful on behalf of our customers.

The Dell + EMC combination is progressing as planned and is on the original schedule and timetable, with a projected close happening in the May-October timeframe. The teams working on the integration planning are making strong progress and we are well down the path ensuring we are set up for success when the deal does close. One of our priority goals is to ensure we maintain the partner and customer experience you have come to expect today, and then preserve and build on the best of both companies' channel programs to deliver an even stronger experience when the transaction closes.

Integration Highlights:

• We have secured U.S. and European Commission antitrust regulatory review and several other required jurisdictions.

• We expect to file an amended S-4 (proxy statement) with the SEC shortly, with an EMC shareholder vote following after the SEC declares the S-4 effective.

• We have named executive leaders for the combined company. Our new company will have the most experienced, most knowledgeable and most capable leadership team in our industry. These new leaders will assume their roles effective immediately following the completion of the transaction.

In (Michael Dell’s) note naming the future leaders of the business he mentions Bill Scannell, Jeff Clarke and myself as leads for our new Go-To-Market structure. We are working together to define the future company’s sales organizations, which includes plans for our channel partners. We will have more details on the structure of the channel partner business once that work is completed in the coming months. Rest assured our intention is to create the best possible program for our partners so you can be successful in service of our joint customers. It’s our plan that this future channel program will bring together the best elements of the Dell PartnerDirect Program and EMC’s Business Partner Program.

Once the transaction is complete, you will have access to the best portfolio in the industry along with extremely compelling programs, which will enable you to offer customers industry-leading solutions in converged infrastructure, hyper converged, cloud, security, virtualization and client solutions. We believe the opportunities for partners will be significant across every aspect of a customer’s technology needs.

Thank you for your continued partnership and we will share more details on the future company in the coming months.