Dellannounced today that it's acquiring Perot Systems, the IT services provider founded by former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, for $3.9 billion.
Perot Systems has more than 1,000 customers, including the Department of Homeland Security and the US military, according to the Associated Press, with health care and government customers accounting for about 73 percent of its revenue. In the last year, the companies say they made a combined $16 billion in enterprise hardware and IT services.
Dell is buying Perot stock for $30 a share and says it plans to turn Perot into its services unit. The deal should help Dell sell its computers to Perot customers. It's expected to close in the November-January quarter.
Last year, Dell competitor Hewlett Packard bought another Perot-founded services company, Electronic Data Systems.