• Wall Street Journal, Thursday, June 11, 2009 11:01 AM

Dell CEO Michael Dell expects his company to acquire a "significant-sized company" in coming months, a source in the know tells Justin Scheck and Romy Varghese, and it particularly wants to beef up its data-storage and tech-services businesses. Darren Thomas, gm of Dell's storage business, says the company wants to "expand its portfolio" in storage-related hardware, software and services.

Dell sold $1 billion in bonds Wednesday. The debt offering is "for general corporate purposes, and among the possibilities -- and certainly no commitment has been made -- are acquisitions," according to a spokesman.

The acquisitive mindset comes none too soon in the eyes of many investors and analysts. In its current form, "Dell simply doesn't have the size, doesn't have the breadth of relationships, and doesn't have the capability" to compete with IBM, H-P and others, says Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

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