July 20, 2011

Today is an exciting day for Dell as we announced our plans to acquire data center networking leader Force10 Networks. This news is further evidence of Dell’s progress and momentum as we continue to build our enterprise portfolio to offer customers a complete range of datacenter products, solutions and services.

For those who are just tuning in to Dell’s efforts over the past few years, it’s worth calling out the company has taken significant actions to expand its enterprise presence as a complete data center solutions provider. This includes developing an integrated stack of leading server, storage, networking and services resources to help customers streamline operations, reduce IT costs, manage data growth and simplify management. The addition of networking is a natural complement to Dell’s server strength.

We think Force10 Networks is a great fit to our stated strategy of offering Open, Capable and Affordable solutions as their technology enables enterprise performance and resiliency while reducing overall TCO, simplifying network deployment, and supporting open, standards-based systems and management solutions. Force10 Networks provides global service and support capabilities in more than 60 countries and its customers include leading Web 2.0 and Fortune 100 companies, Internet portals, global carriers, leading research laboratories and government organizations with some of the world’s most demanding network environments.

The transaction was approved by the board of directors of each company. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction remains subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in late summer.