While Dell struggles to go private, private equity is reportedly staging a run on fellow Texan BMC Software, dying to take the thing private and satisfy Elliott Management, which got Novell sold off to Attachmate a while back.
According to Reuters KKR and TPG Capital, which turned their noses up at Dell, have formed a consortium to bid on BMC. So have Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital. Ditto Thoma Bravo, which is said to be participating in still a third consortium.
The deal is expected to top $6 billion.
When the market closed Thursday after the Reuters story circulated and its shares jumped to $45.49 its market cap stood at $6.5 billion.
Reuters says the process is past the first round of bids. Final bids are due in a few weeks.