Channel Beat: Why Is Dell Selling Off Its Software Division?

This week Dell made news with a blockbuster deal to sell its software division to private equity firm Francisco Partners, as well as hedge fund Elliott Management.

According to Reuters, the deal is worth more than $2 billion.

Some Dell partners say the company's best software days are already in the past, and the sale will offset the company's costs when it completes its purchase of EMC.

EMC shareholders are scheduled to vote on the acquisition next month.

Dell and Nutanix plan to extend a joint OEM agreement, a Dell executive said at the Nutanix customer conference in Las Vegas this week.

Despite potential friction from EMC, the two-year deal will be extended to a multiyear agreement.

So far, the companies have expanded their joint sales and marketing activities from one to seven products.

MobileIron and Arrow Electronics have terminated a distribution agreement just four months after its initial launch.

That deal first came together in February, and it was MobileIron's first comprehensive North American distribution agreement.

The company said it concluded that a two-tier distribution was unnecessary at this time.