Dell’s EMC Deal Could Fall Apart on Tax Rule

【林文彬╱綜合外電報導】科技新聞網站Re/code周二報導，戴爾公司（DELL）以670億美元（2.2兆台幣）收購資料儲存業者EMC的計劃，可能因戴爾須支付高達90億美元(2957億台幣)稅金而破局。報導指出，戴爾之所以可能須支付這麼多稅金，是因為這樁交易的某些重要部分（特別是追蹤股）恐怕無法享有戴爾和EMC認為很重要的減稅優惠。不過親近戴爾的人士反駁這篇報導，表示戴爾和EMC相信這樁交易不會面臨這種威脅，並強調即使沒有這項優惠，交易也不見得會破局。
追蹤股能讓股東享有上市公司特定部門表現亮眼帶來的利益，但不必放棄所有權或控制權，戴爾內部據傳擔心創造追蹤股將引起美國國稅局（IRS）關注。如果IRS認定持有追蹤股需要繳稅，戴爾不是須借更多錢來付給EMC股東，就是被迫擱置收購EMC的計劃。 



Dell’s EMC Deal Could Fall Apart on Tax Rule
By Arik Hesseldahl
@ahess247
November 10, 2015, 8:04 AM PST

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Michael Dell’s ambitious $67 billion plan to take over storage giant EMC may face a big tax burden that could complicate or derail the deal entirely.

Dell insiders are worried the company could end up being on the hook for a tax bill of up to $9 billion following a regulatory review, sources familiar with the matter told Re/code. The worries stem from Dell’s unusual proposal to use a new type of stock share to help pay for the acquisition. Their concerns are also rooted in EMC’s wildly successful investment in the software company VMware, the value of which has risen by tens of billions of dollars since EMC acquired it in 2003.

The combination of factors has some Dell execs concerned, sources said, that certain key aspects of the deal may not qualify for the sort of tax treatment they consider essential for the transaction — the biggest tech acquisition ever proposed — to succeed.

In order to offer EMC shareholders $33.15 a share for the company, Dell plans to pay them $24.05 per share in cash. The remaining $9.10 is to be made up by offering EMC shareholders tracking stock linked to VMware. (EMC owns an 81 percent stake in VMware, while 19 percent of its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange; those shares have declined by about a third since the deal was announced last month.) The tracking stock is intended to offset the amount of debt Dell would have to take on; it is also meant to help Dell avoid a heavy tax liability.

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Dell’s plan to create tracking shares in a company it does not yet own (that’s VMware) would, if successful, amount to a clever threading of a needle in U.S. tax laws: It is intended as neither a distribution of shares nor the spinoff of a subsidiary, both of which are typically taxable events. Instead, EMC shareholders will face taxes in the range of 20 percent to 40 percent for the gains on the cash and the value of the tracking shares.

Tracking stocks are a popular financial device used during the Internet stock boom of the late 1990s. Creating tracking stocks allowed shareholders to invest in the performance of a specific business unit of a larger publicly traded company without the parent giving up any ownership or voting control.

Dell insiders are concerned that the creation of the tracking stock will invite scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service. The agency could deem it a taxable distribution in part because the new shares are linked to EMC’s subsidiary, VMware, in the context of EMC’s acquisition by Dell.

Their concerns are centered on a portion of the U.S. tax law, Section 355, and specifically a subsection that governs “certain distributions of stock or securities in connection with acquisitions.” In some circumstances, when a parent company distributes shares in a subsidiary within two years before or after being acquired itself, any gains in value on those distributed shares can be taxable.

Simply put, the law is intended to prevent corporate spinoffs or share distributions from helping pay for an acquisition, which appears to be what Dell is attempting to do.

Representatives of Dell and EMC declined to comment.

If the IRS were to rule that the tracking stock qualifies as a taxable distribution of shares as defined in Section 355, it would remove a key plank of Dell’s financing for the transaction. At minimum it would require Dell to borrow more money to pay EMC shareholders for the full value of the company. As it is, Dell is expected to have an astounding $50 billion worth of debt on its books after the deal closes sometime next year.

At worst, sources said, the added tax expense could derail the deal entirely. These sources point to a few lines of text in the merger agreement between Dell and EMC stating as much. The document, on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, requires that “neither the company [EMC] nor any of its subsidiaries has been a ‘controlled corporation’ or a ‘distributing corporation’ in any distribution occurring during the two-year period ending on the date hereof that was purported or intended to be governed by Section 355 of the code.” Essentially, that text means that if Section 355 applies, the deal is off.

Instead, Dell is hoping the IRS will see the creation of the VMware tracking shares as a tax-free exchange, which is covered by a different portion of the tax laws — Section 351. One hint at the importance of this distinction can be found in the text of the 76-page merger agreement, which mentions Section 351 nine times versus once for Section 355. One section requires that all parties to the transaction take “any action necessary” to ensure it qualifies for Section 351 or the “intended tax treatment.”