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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
12 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2025
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
Purchase Obligations

The Company has contractual obligations to purchase goods or services, which specify significant terms (including fixed or minimum quantities to be purchased), fixed, minimum, or variable price provisions, and the approximate timing of the transaction. Purchase obligations are primarily related to commitments with suppliers and software maintenance and support services. As of January 31, 2025, such purchase obligations were $5.0 billion for Fiscal 2026, $0.6 billion for Fiscal 2027, and $0.9 billion for Fiscal 2028 and thereafter.

Legal Matters

The Company is involved in various claims, suits, assessments, investigations, and legal proceedings that arise from time to time in the ordinary course of its business, including those identified below, consisting of matters involving consumer, antitrust, tax, intellectual property, and other issues on a global basis.

The Company accrues a liability when it believes that it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and that it can reasonably estimate the amount of the loss. The Company reviews these accruals at least quarterly and adjusts them to reflect ongoing negotiations, settlements, rulings, advice of legal counsel, and other relevant information. To the extent new information is obtained and the Company’s views on the probable outcomes of claims, suits, assessments, investigations, or legal proceedings change, changes in the Company’s accrued liabilities are recorded in the period in which such a determination is made. For some matters, the incurrence of a liability is not probable or the amount cannot be reasonably estimated and therefore accruals have not been made.

The following is a discussion of the Company’s significant legal matters and other proceedings:

Class Actions Related to the Class V Transaction — On December 28, 2018, the Company completed a transaction (the “Class V transaction”) in which it paid $14.0 billion in cash and issued 149,387,617 shares of its Class C Common Stock to holders of its Class V Common Stock in exchange for all outstanding shares of Class V Common Stock. As a result of the Class V transaction, the tracking stock feature of the Company’s capital structure associated with the Class V Common Stock was terminated. Certain stockholders of the Company subsequently brought class action complaints arising out of the Class V transaction in which they named as defendants (collectively, the “defendants”) Michael S. Dell and certain other directors serving on the Company’s board of directors at the time of the Class V transaction (collectively, the “director defendants”), certain stockholders of the Company, consisting of Mr. Dell and Silver Lake Group, L.L.C. and certain of its affiliated funds (collectively, the “stockholder defendants”), and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, which served as financial advisor to the Company in connection with the transaction. The plaintiffs generally alleged that the director defendants and the stockholder defendants breached their fiduciary duties under Delaware law to the former holders of the Class V Common Stock in connection with the Class V transaction by offering a transaction value that was allegedly billions of dollars below fair value.

As previously reported, during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ended February 3, 2023, the plaintiffs and the defendants entered into an agreement to settle the lawsuit. Under the terms of the settlement, the plaintiffs agreed to the dismissal of all claims upon payment of a total of $1.0 billion (the “settlement amount”), which included all costs, expenses and fees of the plaintiff class relating to the action and its resolution. On May 16, 2023, during the fiscal year ended February 2, 2024, the Company paid the settlement amount following approval of the settlement by the Delaware Court of Chancery. This matter is no longer material to the Company.
R2 Semiconductor Patent Litigation — In November 2022, R2 Semiconductor, Inc. (“R2”) filed a lawsuit in the Dusseldorf Regional Court in Germany against Intel Deutschland GmbH, Dell GmbH, and certain other customers of Intel Corporation. R2 asserted that one European patent is infringed by certain Intel processors and those of the Company’s products that incorporate those processors. R2 sought an injunction prohibiting the sale of the allegedly infringing products and damages for the alleged infringement. The court conducted a trial on December 7, 2023 and, on February 7, 2024, issued a decision in favor of R2 and imposed an injunction prohibiting the sale and use of such products in Germany by Dell GmbH, and requiring Dell GmbH to issue a communication to certain customers recalling the covered products sold since March 5, 2020. On February 8, 2024, the Company filed an appeal. In April and May 2024, R2 filed lawsuits in Paris, France and Milan, Italy, against affiliates of Intel Corporation (“Intel”) and of the Company, raising similar allegations. Intel agreed to defend the foregoing actions and indemnify the Company and its affiliates against certain losses incurred by the Company in connection with R2’s claims. On August 30, 2024, Intel and R2 publicly announced an agreement to dismiss all litigation between the two companies that would include dismissal of all litigation against all subsidiaries of Dell Technologies named in the foregoing actions. Pursuant to that agreement, the Italian lawsuit was dismissed on September 2, 2024, the German lawsuit was dismissed on September 4, 2024, and the French lawsuit was dismissed on September 6, 2024.

Other Litigation — Dell does not currently anticipate that any of the other legal proceedings it is involved in will have a material adverse effect on its business, financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows.

In accordance with the relevant accounting guidance, the Company provides disclosures of matters where it is at least reasonably possible that the Company could experience a material loss exceeding the amounts already accrued for these or other proceedings or matters. In addition, the Company also discloses matters based on its consideration of other matters and qualitative factors, including the experience of other companies in the industry, and investor, customer, and employee relations considerations. As of January 31, 2025, the Company does not believe there is a reasonable possibility that a material loss exceeding the amounts already accrued for these or other proceedings or matters has been incurred. However, since the ultimate resolution of any such proceedings and matters is inherently unpredictable, the Company’s business, financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows could be materially affected in any particular period by unfavorable outcomes in one or more of these proceedings or matters. Whether the outcome of any claim, suit, assessment, investigation, or legal proceeding, individually or collectively, could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows will depend on a number of factors, including the nature, timing, and amount of any associated expenses, amounts paid in settlement, damages, or other remedies or consequences.

Indemnifications Obligations

In the ordinary course of business, the Company enters into various contracts under which it may agree to indemnify other parties for losses incurred from certain events as defined in the relevant contract, such as litigation, regulatory penalties, or claims relating to past performance. Such indemnification obligations may not be subject to maximum loss clauses. Historically, payments related to these indemnification obligations have not been material to the Company.

Under the Separation and Distribution Agreement entered into with VMware, Inc. upon completion of the spin-off of VMware, Inc. on November 1, 2021 (the “VMware Spin-off”), Dell Technologies agreed to indemnify VMware, Inc., each of its subsidiaries and each of their respective directors, officers, employees, as well as any successors and assigns of the foregoing, from and against all liabilities relating to, arising out of or resulting from, among other matters, the liabilities allocated to Dell Technologies as part of the separation of Dell Technologies and VMware, Inc. (currently operating under the name VMware LLC, and individually and together with its subsidiaries, “VMware”) and their respective businesses (the “Separation”). VMware similarly agreed to indemnify Dell Technologies Inc., each of its subsidiaries and each of their respective directors, officers, and employees from and against all liabilities relating to, arising out of or resulting from, among other matters, the liabilities allocated to VMware as part of the Separation. The amounts that VMware and Dell Technologies may be obligated to pay each other could vary depending on the outcome of certain unresolved tax matters, which may not be resolved for several years. Net income tax indemnification receivables from VMware were immaterial as of January 31, 2025 and February 2, 2024.
Certain Concentrations

The Company maintains cash and cash equivalents, derivatives, and certain other financial instruments with various financial institutions that potentially subject it to concentration of credit risk. As part of its risk management processes, the Company performs periodic evaluations of the relative credit standing of these financial institutions. The Company has not sustained material credit losses from instruments held at these financial institutions. Further, the Company does not anticipate nonperformance by any of the counterparties.

The Company markets and sells its products and services to large corporate clients, governmental agencies, and health care and education accounts, as well as to small and medium-sized businesses and individuals. No single customer accounted for more than 10% of the Company’s consolidated net revenue during the fiscal years ended January 31, 2025, February 2, 2024, and February 3, 2023.

The Company utilizes a limited number of contract manufacturers that assemble a portion of its products. The Company purchases components from suppliers and sells those components to such contract manufacturers. The Company reflects the sale of such components by recognizing non-trade receivables from the contract manufacturers and a reduction in inventory when title and risk of loss pass to the manufacturer. Cash flows related to such transactions are recorded within cash flows from operating activities. The Company does not reflect the sale of the components in revenue and does not recognize any profit on the component sales until the related products are sold to a customer.
The agreements with the majority of the contract manufacturers permit the Company to offset its payables against the receivables, thus mitigating the credit risk wholly or in part. Such receivables were $5.4 billion and $3.4 billion as of January 31, 2025 and February 2, 2024, respectively, and primarily consisted of receivables from the Company’s three largest contract manufacturers. The Company offset its corresponding payables against $4.7 billion and $2.7 billion of such receivables as of January 31, 2025 and February 2, 2024, respectively. The portion of receivables not offset is included in other current assets in the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position.