Dell Inc.’s announcement that it wants to auction off Perot Systems, its healthcare IT consulting business, has led to a frenzy of speculation regarding prospective buyers, with at least four companies said to be interested.

Dell let it be known late last year it was willing to hand over the keys to Perot Systems if buyers could match its $5 billion valuation. Since then, a number of companies have reportedly held talks with the Texas-based computing giant.

France-based managed IT services firm Atos SE is said to be leading the way with a $4.3 billion offer. Meanwhile, Cognizant Corp. and NTT Communications are also said to be in the reckoning, though it’s not clear if either has made any concrete offer just yet. A fourth company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), was also reported to have made an offer, only to change its mind when Dell stuck to its guns and insisted on $5 billion.

It would seem that Tata’s leaked $4.3 billion offer is designed to try and push either Cognizant or NTT to up their own bids, though it’s not immediately clear if they will take the bait.

Perot Systems was founded by Ross Perot back in 1998, before being snapped up by Dell for $3.9 billion in 2009. Dell has largely made a success of the business since integrating it into its own, but is now keen to sell off the asset as a way of reducing the $50 billion debt it will take in in order to finance its acquisition of EMC Corp. later this year.

Even so, Dell needs to get a good price for Perot. It’s widely believed that the company is still a bit worried about getting shareholder approval for the EMC merger, and as such it needs to show it’s capable of getting good value out of its deals. As such, it needs to do more than just break-even on the sale of Perot Systems.

Of course, much of what’s being printed is still just speculation, as none of the companies involved are willing to go on record about the ongoing negotiations, if indeed any really are ongoing. No doubt, there’ll be a lot more speculation about Perot Systems before Dell finally finds a buyer.

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