UPDATED 10:04 EDT / JULY 19 2013

Dell PR Boss Jumps Ship Ahead of Buyout Vote

Dell’s future is anything but certain. A leaked internal email sent by chief marketing officer Karen Quintos revealed that Kelly McGinnis, the company’s head of global communications, resigned shortly before the scheduled investor vote on Michael Dell’s $24.4 billion buyout offer.

The vote was originally due to take place today, but got pushed back to July 24 in a meeting this morning. Anonymous tipsters claim that Michael Dell rescheduled the vote after holders of nearly 30 percent of the company’s stock indicated that they oppose his proposal.

McGinnis joined Dell from Enfactio, the technology vendor’s former public relations agency. Quinto wrote in her email that McGinnis left the company for “another exciting leadership opportunity” closer to her family in California, and divulged that Marc Bien will replace her at the end of July. According to the message, Bien is a communications manager who has been with Dell for three years. He has worked on “reputation management, M&A and most recently, LBO communications.”

McGinnis’s resignation comes at a bad time for Dell. Members of the company’s leadership team, namely the group of directors that oversees its sale, have come under fire by hedge fund giant Carl Icahn. The activist investor said in an open letter to shareholders that the company had “no right” to delay the vote.

“Can you imagine a political election contest where one side could push off the election to wait for a better day to hold the election — a date when it is hoped they might do better in the vote than they would have done on the originally scheduled election date,” the letter reads.

Icahn asserts that the company is worth more than the $13.36-a-share Michael Dell is offering. He proposed a $15.6 billion self tender that would keep the vendor public but give stockholders the option to cash their shares for $14 apiece.


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