EMC Customers Not Thrilled With Dell Deal

While Dell customers are upbeat about the proposed mega merger with EMC, customers of the storage giant are less than ecstatic, according to a survey by 451 Research.

The research firm surveyed 447 enterprise IT decision makers in less than 24 hours after the $67 billion deal was announced on Monday. More than 40% of customers who buy products from EMC but not Dell have a negative impression of the acquisition. Only15% of Dell customers are down on the deal, the poll showed.

“Most concerning is that 42% of EMC-only customers believe the combined Dell-EMC company is not aligned with the goal of their organization, and 13% report they will spend less than previously planned with EMC,” analysts wrote in a report about the survey.

Twenty-nine percent of EMC-only users cited the merger as a potential distraction to both companies, while 18% believe the combined company will fail. Fifteen percent said they’re concerned about limited product innovation.

While Dell customers view Dell as an enterprise systems supplier, 43% of EMC customers see it as primarily a PC supplier, the survey showed.

“There will be plenty of work ahead for Dell to convince EMC’s existing customer base that it has real enterprise chops and will do the right things with its product portfolio, 451 Research analysts wrote.

“Major deals like this will always create some level of opportunity for competitors, and 25% of IT buyers in our study are not yet sure how this will impact their spending,” they said, noting that many likely will be open to fielding sales calls from competitors.

Among all those polled, 31% are upbeat about Dell’s acquisition of EMC, with many viewing the companies as complementary. Dell customers -- who are comfortable buying everything from PCs to servers from the vendor -- see more benefits, according to 451 Research.

“Dell customers believe they will benefit from access to a much larger portfolio of technologies across storage, information security, IT services, servers and PCs from a single vendor,” analysts said. They noted that lends itself to current IT buying patterns, which favor converged and integrated offerings from a smaller number of vendors.