Aaron Ricadela

When Michael Dell took his company public in 1988, the personal-computer maker’s biggest competitors were International Business Machines Corp., Compaq Computer Corp. and Gateway 2000. The headstrong founder was later quoted joking that his daughter’s first words were to “kill IBM” and his other rivals. A quarter century later, as Dell takes his Round Rock, Texas-based company private in a $24.9 billion transaction following shareholder approval yesterday, the landscape has shifted. The PC business is dwindling, leaving Dell out of step with a technology world moving to smartphones and tablets dominated by companies including Apple Inc. and Google Inc....

Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) is going private in a $24.4 billion leveraged buyout that signals the waning of the personal-computer industry it once dominated. In the largest LBO since the financial crisis, Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management LLC are paying $13.65 a share, the companies said Tuesday in a statement. That’s 25 percent more than the closing price of $10.88 on Jan. 11, the last trading day before Bloomberg News reported the discussions. Michael Dell is taking back majority control of the company he started in a University of Texas dormitory almost three decades ago after...