The biggest private equity firm in tech just went all-in on one huge bet
The tech-focused LBO shop has turned in impressive returns since its founding about 16 years ago, in part fueled by success on transactions like Skype, Virtu Financial and Alibaba Group.
Silver Lake is putting $1 billion into the new deal, according to Bloomberg. It had already put $1.4 billion in to the take private of Dell back in 2013.
That initial investment delivered a 90% paper gain by November last year, according to reports at the time.
As Dan Primack at Fortune points out, that would put the total amount of equity Silver Lake has in Dell-EMC at more than $3 billion.
To put that into perspective, it is equivalent to 30% of the $10 billion the firm raised to support the initial Dell deal in 2013. If that were all from a single fund - that would be unheard of.
Silver Lake did not comment in time for publication.
The Dell-EMC merger isn't just a historic tech deal. It also reflects an ongoing shift between Michael Dell and Silver Lake - the private equity firm his seed capital helped establish at the end of the last century.
Taking Dell private at $25 billion two years ago represented the biggest deal in Silver Lake's history.
Now, its involvement in the melding together of two technology industry titans means the private equity firm is doubling down on its massive bet.