Dell's Rory Read: EMC Integration Will Be Done 6-9 Months After Acquisition Closes

Read Talks Dell-EMC Timeline

Barely a day after Dell announced it would acquire EMC in a $67 billion transaction, Dell's COO and president of worldwide commercial sales, Rory Read, was named "chief integration officer" and tasked with leading the integration of the two tech giants.

His EMC counterpart in the effort is Howard Elias, the Hopkinton, Mass.-based company's COO and president of global enterprise services.

Read, who joined Dell in March, spoke with CRN about his new position and the integration during the annual Dell World conference held in Austin, Texas, last week. Here are five takeaways.

The Integration Will Be Complete Just Months After The Deal Closes

"We think six to nine months out, but each [transaction] is different," Read said. "It's all about getting the team in place, real talent, using the tools, using the experience, using discipline. It's nothing but hard work and commitment." Dell has said it expects the transaction to close in the third quarter of 2016. The merger would be the largest in tech industry history and create a more-than $80 billion conglomerate with market leadership in a variety of businesses.

Execs Don't See Much Overlap In The Two Companies' Portfolios

"There's no question that Michael has the vision for where this has to go, but you can see how this creates a powerhouse enterprise solutions company, and there's very little overlap there," Read said, noting Dell's strengths in PCs, servers and EMC's strengths in storage, virtualization and software. "These things play very well together."

Michael Dell Handpicked Read

Dell first mentioned Read's appointment as chief integration officer the day after the EMC acquisition was announced, saying he and Elias would both report to EMC Chairman and CEO Joe Tucci. Tuesday, Read said being picked for the new job was part of Michael Dell's vision. "I'm here to do whatever he needs me to do," Read said.

The Companies Are Counting On Their Go-To-Market Strength

"You've got scale, customers, partners, supply. That's powerful. Then you think about next-wave technology around VMware, around Pivotal, around SecureWorks. Then, there's the core business, the essential kind of business, it's a powerhouse around enterprise solutions. And at the end of the day, you've got this go-to-market where they play strong in certain markets, with the channel. We have (a) nice channel that's really growing."

Discipline Is The Biggest Requirement

"The key around any integration is discipline and structure," said Read, formerly the CEO of AMD. "We've got the tool structure, having done a lot of integrations already. And we're working with our counterparts over at EMC." Read noted that EMC is in a 60-day "go shop" period in which it may entertain competing offers. But he said, "There's a lot of work we can do here to prepare for it."