Computing giant Dell is in advanced talks to buy storage company EMC according to a WSJ report, citing the inevitable people familiar with the matter.

A full acquisition seems unlikely since EMC is around double the size of Dell if you compare its $50 billion market cap with the $25 billion is cost to take Dell private. More probable would be for Dell to keep just the storage part of EMC, while spinning off VMware, which is mostly owned by EMC.

Another report from Re/code, which was itself acquired from the WSJ by Vox Media earlier this year, insists only the storage part of EMC has ever been on the table. It also makes the point that Dell would have to add significantly to its current debt pile of $12 billion to fund any deal.

If this move did go ahead it would set a new record for the value of tech-only M&A, topping the $37 billion Avago is paying for Broadcom. Dell is increasingly been moving towards enterprise IT, and away from PCs, since it was taken private by its founder. It has often been outbid by the likes of HP for in enterprise IT acquisitions in the past and EMC may be viewed as a relative bargain, having failed to recover its dotcom bubble highs.