Dell-EMC To Unload Enterprise Content Division To Canadian Firm For $1.6B

Dell-EMC has reached an agreement to sell its Enterprise Content Division to Canadian information management firm Open Text Corp. for $1.6 billion, Open Text said in a statement Monday morning.

The sale includes EMC’s Documentum enterprise content management business, the company said. The transaction is expected to close within 120 days.

The purchase price is more than twice the division’s fiscal 2015 revenue of $599 million.

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Open Text, based in Waterloo, Ontario, said the deal includes the Enterprise Content Division’s software, services and employees. The division is led by EMC’s C.J. Desai. The companies said they also intend to negotiate a strategic commercial partnership.

The sale is the first since Dell Technologies completed its $58 billion acquisition of EMC last week. To make that acquisition work, Dell took on about $47 billion in debt, and has vowed to pay down that debt aggressively.

Under Dell Technologies, the company’s enterprise business is known as Dell-EMC while its PC business is known simply as Dell.

Even before the acquisition closed, Dell had shed its Perot Systems services business, as well as its Quest software business and its SonicWall security business. It has also planned an initial public offering of stock of its SecureWorks division.

Open Text is focused on enterprise content management and information life cycle management in the health care, life sciences, public sector, financial services, energy and engineering markets. It is led by CEO Mark J. Barrenechea.