Dell yesterday was close to finishing a $23bn deal to take itself private at between $13.50 and $13.75 a share, said people familiar with the matter, in a buyout that marks an unofficial end to the era when a handful of young entrepreneurs made PCs the dominant computing device.

The buyout, if approved by shareholders, would be the largest such transaction since the financial crisis, and reflects the combined heft of Michael Dell, the computer maker's founder and chief executive, software titan Microsoft, private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and a handful of investment banks.