Dell, once only a provider of PCs, has acquired EMC Corp. in a landmark deal.

Many lifetimes ago, when I was setting up offices and maintaining computer systems, my device of choice was Dell. They made a vanilla device that accepted various cards, which made it the perfect machine to set up in different departments, each of which had different needs.

However, a company like Dell can no longer remain in existence by simply making and selling PCs. It is with this in mind that Michael S. Dell successfully took the company private two years ago. Since then, Dell has been acquiring companies to strengthen its portfolio.

EMC has agreed to be acquired by Dell and partners in a deal that involves cash and a stock deal valued at $67 billion. It is said that this is the biggest acquisition ever with respect to the U.S. tech space, with the buyers paying $33.15 per EMC share.

However, it appears that the transaction is a lot more complicated. While the actual cash value has not yet been disclosed, the transaction involves a special kind of stock. That price is about 27 percent higher from where EMC’s shares were trading before news of the deal first emerged. In addition, Dell would also be acquiring a huge amount of EMC debt.

According to Pund-IT analyst Charles King, the acquisition of EMC gives Dell a stronger claim to being the only IT vendor with a full set of products from the PC to the data center. That’s a valuable position to hold in the market; if a vendor can buy all the necessary components for a full range of products from one location, they can generally get better deals and increase brand awareness/trust.

Buying EMC would position Dell in the data storage industry, adding to existing offerings like network servers, corporate software and mobile devices. The deal will combine the world's biggest enterprise storage vendor with one of the largest server makers. This combination will form a company capable of serving a much wider range of enterprise needs.

Michael Dell commented, “We’re continuing to evolve the company into the most relevant areas where I.T. is moving. This deal just accelerates that.” Both Dell and EMC’s CEO, Joe Tucci, believe that keeping the merged company’s one-stop-shop business model will help to draw corporate customers who are anxious to buy servers.

In 2004 EMC acquired VMware, which it then spun off, though it retains 83 percent of its shares. While Dell will now own a majority stake in the publicly traded VMware, Dell’s owners adamantly insisted that their company will remain privately held for some time. Dell feels that remaining private gives the company a tremendous amount of flexibility.