Silver Lake sold $70.9 million of Dell at $582 days before an 11% drop
Five Silver Lake funds sold about $70.9 million of Dell stock on October 9, emptying two funds to zero, and filed the paperwork five days later, on the day Dell fell 11% to $507.93 on a Barclays downgrade. The sponsor still holds roughly 41 million super-voting shares, about 99.7% of its position.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
On October 9, 2026, five Silver Lake funds sold about $70.9 million of Dell Technologies−5.82% — Dell Technologies, down 5.82 percent today stock, at weighted prices from $572.87 to $589.28 a share 12345. Five days after the sales, on the afternoon the paperwork reached the SEC, Barclays cut Dell to Equal Weight from Overweight and the shares closed down $64.54, just over 11%, at $507.93 6. The wires carried the downgrade; the Form 4s drew no coverage.
Two funds sold out to zero, none under a trading plan
The funds sold 121,801 shares of Class C, Dell's publicly traded stock, in dozens of tranches averaging near $582 12345. The two smallest, Silver Lake Technology Investors IV and V, finished the day holding zero 45. None of the five filings checks the Rule 10b5-1 box that marks a preset trading plan 1.
This was the third batch in under a month: the same Silver Lake group filed a Dell Form 4 covering September 15, and on October 6 its Technology Investors V fund sold 462 more Class C shares 910. Each filing also records in-kind distributions to fund partners and to Egon Durban, the Silver Lake co-chief executive who sits on Dell's board, the mechanics of a buyout sponsor returning cash 112.
Two big Silver Lake funds trimmed; two small ones emptied out
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Silver Lake Partners IV | 50,454 |
| SL SPV-2 | 44,408 |
| Partners V DE (AIV) | 25,494 |
| Technology Investors IV | 996 |
| Technology Investors V | 449 |
Revenue doubled while the stock nearly quadrupled
The shares were up almost 300% for the year, and the selling landed about $14 under the 52-week high of $596 8. The business had doubled underneath: quarterly revenue ran from $22.3 billion to $47 billion across twelve quarters 13, and AI orders hit a record $60.9 billion against a $95 billion backlog 8.
Dell's quarterly revenue doubled in the twelve quarters to July 2026
Data
| Quarterly revenue | |
|---|---|
| Q3 '23 | $22.25B |
| Q4 '23 | $22.32B |
| Q1 '24 | $22.24B |
| Q2 '24 | $25.03B |
| Q3 '24 | $24.37B |
| Q4 '24 | $23.93B |
| Q1 '25 | $23.38B |
| Q2 '25 | $29.78B |
| Q3 '25 | $27.01B |
| Q4 '25 | $33.38B |
| Q1 '26 | $43.84B |
| Q2 '26 | $46.97B |
Dell tops the CIO survey; Barclays calls the growth inflation
Morgan Stanley's CIO survey, out the same week, ranked Dell first among hardware vendors on three-year spending intentions, a net 31% and four points above its spring reading 7. Barclays'−0.09% — Barclays, down 0.09 percent today downgrade argued the growth is mostly memory prices, and Dell vice chairman Jeff Clarke conceded a piece of it on the earnings call: "There's a notion of inflation inside our growth" 8.
The survey's fine print leans Barclays' way. Between 75% and 83% of CIOs are adjusting their 2026 hardware budgets to buy earlier, and separately 43% are pulling some 2027 server spending into this year; more than 70% expect server, storage or PC budgets to flatten or decline by 2028 7.
The sale left about 99.7% of the sponsor's stake
The 121,801 shares sold stand against roughly 41.1 million Class B shares, the super-voting stock that converts one-for-one into Class C, which the group still reported, worth about $24 billion at the price it just banked 5.
The founder's camp leaned the other way the same week. MSD Partners, Michael Dell's family office, paid $406 million for a stake in SK Group, parent of SK Hynix−6.61% — SK Hynix, down 6.61 percent today, the leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators; the seller, chairman Chey Tae-won, needed the cash for a divorce settlement 11.
No reason stated, and the $596 high may have been the top
Silver Lake, which joined Michael Dell's $24.4 billion take-private of the company in 2013, states no reason for the sales, and the filings give none 112. Watch EDGAR for the next cluster, and the October-quarter results against that backlog. If the CIOs are right about 2028, the $596 high was the top, and Silver Lake sold within $14 of it 78.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
