A number of Dell Inc's largest investors are abstaining from voting on the US$24.4 billion bid led from founder Michael Dell. Second thoughts arose from the special committee on Dell's board as new voting terms were presented in the revised bid by Michael Dell and Silver Lake. At the moment, shareholders who are abstaining from voting will be counted as voting against the deal. The buyout group led by Michael Dell is petitioning that the shareholder votes from those who will opt to abstain be excluded from the overall tally. Sources close to the deal said that the shareholder votes come to an even split.

Sources familiar with the deal are saying that the Dell special committee rejected the offer because they did not want to change the previous voting rules. Silver Lake sources are saying that the private equity firm is deeply disappointed with the response of the special committee and are now expecting that the deal will collapse.

One of Dell's largest shareholders billionaire investor Carl Icahn, made a counter proposal, where Dell would perform a large share buyback in a deal worth $14 per share plus warrants to investors. Icahn is backed by money managers T Rowe Price and Southeastern Asset Management. T Rowe Price, Southeastern Asset Management and Icahn own almost 17% of Dell.