DELL: Icahn May Oppose LBO, Says CNBC; HPQ Interested, Says Bloomberg

CNBC‘s David Faber just now reported that activist investor Carl Icahn has amassed a 100 million-share position, or 6%, in Dell (DELL), over the last two weeks and may be looking to block to the leveraged buyout proposed by founder and CEO Michael Dell.

Says Faber,

Icahn told me he wouldn’t discuss Dell, but people familiar tell me Icahn has met with advisors for Dell’s special committee and has urged them to pursue a leveraged re-cap rather than the LBO. Advisors asked Icahn to sign a confidentiality agreement, but he has yet to do so. What is more likely is he is going to come out against the deal and urge the board to lever up to provide a special one-time dividend. That vote would require a majority of the shares not owned by Michael Dell to approve. We still have another quarter of earnings to come from here. Icahn has worked with Southeastern [Asset Management, a fund agitating against the LBO] in past, but there is no evidence they have teamed up here. The special committee has said they were concerned they could not get the $8 billion to $9 billion to add to the balance sheet to pay out to shareholders.

Dell shares are currently up 13 cents, or 1%, at $14.20.

Note that my colleague Andrew Bary had written on February 11th in Barron’s print magazine that the deal might attract activist investors, including Icahn.

Update: In a follow-up item, Faber claims Icahn is advocating a $9 one-time dividend.

Update 2: The Wall Street Journal’s Sharon Terlep and Joann Lublin this afternoon report that Southeastern has considered presenting a counter-bid in partnership with another entity, citing multiple unnamed sources. The authors write that it is unclear if such a bid, if it were to come to pass, would be above the LBO price of $13.65. Dell shares are now up 27 cents, or 2%, at $14.34.

Update 3: Headlines are passing just now saying The BlackStone Group (BX) is “studying Dell books in go-shop period.”

Update 4: A report now posted by Bloomberg’s Serena Saitto now says that not only BlackStone but also Hewlett-Packard (AAPL) and Lenovo Group (0992HK) have shown some interest in the company, though it would appear from the report that those two have not get looked at Dell’s books.