'Believe us, the offer is a good one!'

A multitude of institutional investors are unhappy with the Dell offer and have declared their opposition to Michael Dell’s USD 13.65-a-share bid to take the company private. In response, Dell has issued the following statement: The following note was communicated today in response to certain inquires. "In the course of its deliberations, the Special Committee of Dell’s Board considered an array of strategic alternatives. In addition to working through financial and capital allocation issues with its independent financial advisors, the Committee retained a prominent management consultant to help it assess the Company’s strategic position. Based on that work, the Board concluded that the proposed all-cash transaction is in the best interests of stockholders. The transaction offers an attractive and immediate premium for stockholders and shifts the risks facing the business to the buyer group. In addition, and importantly, the go-shop process provides stockholders an opportunity to determine if there are alternatives that are superior to the present offer." Or in other words: Trust us, the offer is a good one. This is as good as it gets. Most will doubt that the investors will swallow that one unseen. So, this is far from over.