EMC staff blasted for 'making things up' about Dell deal

EMC bigwig urges staff not to 'veer from the script' in the field

EMC staff have been accused of "making things up" about the company's acquisition by Dell, according to EMC's global sales boss, who urged them not to "veer from the script".

In an EMC Town Hall meeting held last week, EMC president of global sales Bill Scannell updated staff on the plans for the firm after the $67bn acquisition by Dell was announced earlier this month.

At the end of his presentation, Scannell chastised some staff for saying the wrong thing to customers.

"I've seen a couple of things happening in the field where people are veering from the script and kind of making things up," he said. "That's not healthy, that's not going to allow us to make this a painless and very successful merger.

"Please understand the rules of engagement. Understand what you can and can't say now prior to the closing, realising this could be another six to nine months before we get the regulatory approvals and the shareholders' sign-off to do this merger.

"I have one important thing to ask and that is, make sure you read the frequently asked questions. Make sure you read what was sent out to you around the acquisition.

"Please stay focused on our quarterly business, stay focused on exceeding your customers' expectations and make sure you understand what we've said publicly about this acquisition and all is going to be great."

If the deal goes ahead, EMC will go private but VMware - in which it owns an 80 per cent stake - will remain a publicly listed company.

Scannell said that taking EMC under Dell's private umbrella will be good in that it will partially eliminate any pressure to slash prices purely to meet the stock market's expectations.

"Being a privately held company, and not having to do things in 90-day cycles to please the Wall Street analysts and shareholders [will be a benefit]," he said. "Going private is going to have a huge impact on how we can service our customers, both in the short term and the long term.

"It also is going to allow us to be a little more selective at the end of the quarter for what transactions we do versus transactions we don't take. Let's not kid ourselves, we know procurement waits till the end of the quarter because they know they can get a better deal from EMC.

"Now don't get me wrong, we are still going to be very manically focused on quarterly bookings, but we no longer have to worry about shipping products at the end of the quarter to make the quarterly revenue numbers. That's going to have a huge impact on savings from inventory with EMC."