[crapshoot101]

Its a fair point, but its a little bit more complex than that.

For example, EMC's valuation is really dominated by VMWare, of which it owns 80% (indeed, much of the strategic discussion around EMC before Dell emerged had focused on a merger where the parent bought out VMWare or the other way around). VMWare is currently trading ~$33B; Dell could easily take a portion of that stake that EMC owns (say, 25% of that 80%, which would still allow it to maintain majority control) and put that out in the market and generate ~$8B or so (maybe more). Moreover, they could (and probably will) spin off business units that they have less interest in (speculating here, but RSA?). Because EMC has had this traditional federation model, the spinoff / sale of business lines is probably easier than in most areas.

No matter what, the debt overhang is still large, but its definitely not as large as it appears at first glance.