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Dell Technologies$DELL · filed: grew revenue 18.8% in FY2026 to $113.5BWeathered boatTrillion Score 415Fall Risk LowNext year $105.3B–$140.7B sealedCheck ▾Close ▴
What Dell Technologies filed
Grew revenue 18.8% in FY2026 to $113.5 billion, operating margin 7.2% against a 3.1% median for electronic computers, equity -2.4% of assets, and dividend per share up 3 years running. Every figure links to the filing it came from on Dell Technologies’s card. Weathered boat: two warning signs. Trillion Score 415, #37 of 45 in its field; Fall Risk Low (how it is measured).
What the house said in advance
Revenue for the fiscal year after 2026-01-30 between $105.3B and $140.7B, an 80% range sealed on 24 Sept 2026 · receipt #dea931 · graded in public by the revenue in Dell Technologies’s next annual report.
Figures as filed with the SEC. Ranges, scores and boats are statistical descriptions of past filings, not ratings or recommendations. Reporting, not advice.
In plain words
Family office capital is now outcompeting private equity in mid-market insurance by accepting lower returns in exchange for structural flexibility.
$7.7 billion
take-private of The Baldwin Insurance Group
260-plus acquisitions
Revenue reached approximately
$900 million
in 2023
4-6x EBITDA
on the buy side and flipping the rolled-up platforms…
Michael Dell's family office is leading a $7.7 billion take-private of The Baldwin Insurance Group, outmaneuvering traditional private equity in a sector where PE firms have dominated consolidation for the past decade. The deal, reported by the Financial Times, marks the largest single-family office acquisition of an insurance platform in U.S. history and signals a structural shift in how patient capital competes for predictable cash flows.
Baldwin, founded in 2011, has grown from a small Georgia brokerage into the sixth-largest independent insurance broker in the United States through 260-plus acquisitions. Revenue reached approximately $900 million in 2023, with EBITDA margins estimated in the mid-twenties—textbook private equity territory. The company filed for an IPO in April 2024 but pulled the offering in September after market conditions deteriorated. PE firms including KKR and Blackstone had circled the asset, but Dell's family office moved faster with certainty of financing and no fund-life constraints.
The transaction matters because it exposes a widening crack in private equity's insurance-consolidation playbook. Traditional PE firms operate on seven-year fund cycles and require 20%-plus IRRs to justify LP fees. Family offices like Dell's operate without those frictions. They can pay lower multiples, accept longer payback periods, and still generate superior risk-adjusted returns by avoiding the 2-and-20 toll. Baldwin's predictable recurring revenue and decentralized management structure make it an ideal asset for perpetual hold strategies, not exit-driven financial engineering.
Insurance brokerage has been one of private equity's most reliable sectors since 2015, with platforms like Hub International, Acrisure, and AssuredPartners absorbing hundreds of small agencies at 4-6x EBITDA on the buy side and flipping the rolled-up platforms at 12-15x. But deal volume in the sector has slowed 18% year-over-year as valuations compressed and regional banks tightened leverage terms. Family offices now have structural advantages: they don't need to market exits, they can warehouse assets through rate cycles, and they bring operational networks that founders value over PE's cookie-cutter integration playbooks.
Operators should watch three things. First, whether Dell's office installs its own management or keeps Baldwin's founder-CEO in place with long-term earnouts—that structure signals whether this is a financial hold or a platform play. Second, whether other tech-founder family offices follow into insurance brokerage; if Bezos, Zuckerberg, or Huang-linked vehicles make similar moves in Q2 2025, the repricing becomes permanent. Third, whether PE firms respond by raising permanent-capital vehicles to compete on structure rather than speed—Blackstone and Apollo have both filed for evergreen insurance-focused funds in the past six months.
The Baldwin deal closes a loop that began when Dell took his namesake computer company private in 2013 at $24.9 billion, then took it public again in 2018. He learned that control beats liquidity when you have the balance sheet to endure volatility. Insurance brokerages generate the kind of cash flow that funds that philosophy without the operational complexity of technology turnarounds.
Branded by POPS4 · proof in 60 seconds
For the principal
If your office holds over $500M AUM, insurance brokerage roll-ups now trade at rational multiples with PE overextended.
For the operator
Track whether Baldwin retains its acquisition team post-close; that signals whether this is a one-off or a perpetual consolidator.
For the house
Named accounts with exposure to Hub, Acrisure, or AssuredPartners should model 15-20% valuation compression if family offices crowd the exits.
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