Dell is close to selling off its software business to acquisition firm Francisco Partners and the private equity arm of Elliot Management Corp for more than $2 billion (£1.36bn), according to Reuters.
A deal could be reached as early as next week, said the sources, but they said that Dell would retain Boomi, its cloud software asset.
The potential sale comes as Dell looks to offload its most unprofitable assets in preparation for the $67 billion (£46bn) acquisition of EMC.
In March, NTT bought Dell’s consulting business Perot Systems for $3 billion (£2bn).
In quarterly results this month, Dell’s parent company Denali Holdings said the firm’s software division had flat revenues of $332 million (£236m).
UPDATE: ALL THREE PARTIES LATER TODAY CONFIRMED THE ACQUISITION.
Security vendor Flashpoint debuts partner programme following $28m funding
Complex buying journeys and sprawling partner networks hampering customer experience, says Accenture
Datacentre provider Cyxtera says launch is “milestone in our go-to-market strategy”
Ensono highlights importance of mainframes still to major industries
Security vendor VASCO looks to replicate UK and German set up across EMEA
Splunk details investment in Partner+ programme at .conf2017