Short Sellers Hit EMC Ahead of VMWare's IPO

If there is such a strong interest in the VMWare IPO, it is amazing how short sellers have been increasing their bets against EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC).  In July, short sellers increased their bets to 40.918 million shares in the short interest.  In June, the short interest reading was 36.374 million shares.  The overall short interest also rose at the NYSE: Based on information received from members and member organizations,short interest increased to 12,950,726,148 from 12,467,283,409 as ofJune 15, 2007.

The reading from May to June was actually a decline in the short interest, as the May reading only showed 38.93 million shares.  In May to June, there was a lack of data that had been coming out of the company and some of that uncertainty may have led to short sellers being confused.  Shares were also rising.  The short interest increase this month is likely earlybird arbitrage players trying to make early bets.  It could just be traders betting that after a huge run that the best had been seen in EMC and that profit taking could come into play after earnings next week.  Who knows for sure, but this will be one to watch.

Here is the entire history linkage we have made after EMC’s filing indicated at the pricing and the terms for what appears to be early August.

As a reminder, EMC holders will not actually receive shares in the VMWare IPO.  This is more representative of the old’tracking stock’ model seen in the 1990’s, even if it is expected to be a hot IPO.  EMC shares closed yesterday less than 1% under the intraday highs over the last 52-weeks, and that is actually the multi-year highs.  Shares are up almost 30% in the last 90 days.  The company reports earnings on Tuesday, July 24, 2007.

Jon C. Ogg
July 20, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.