Dell said it will now consider two more proposals placed on the table following the closure of its “go shop” period, with US asset group Blackstone and self-made New York billionaire Carl Icahn both placing offers on the table.

They are competing against an agreed merger following an offer by Dell founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake, with some funding offered by Microsoft, to take the company private.

Dell and Silver Lake offered to take US$24bn – or $13.65 per share - in the company as part of their offering and Icahn proposed taking a 58% share, at $15 a share while Blackstone said it would pay more than $14.25 per share.

Dell has formed a special committee made up of four independent and disinterested directors to oversee the process.

“Dell special committee chairman Alex Mandl said:” We are gratified by the success of our go shop process that has yielded two alternative proposals with the potential to create additional value for Dell shareholders.”

In a press release relating to the existing merger agreement with founder Michael Dell, Dell said: “The special committee has the right to terminate the agreement in order to accept a superior proposal. The Special Committee has not determined that either the Blackstone proposal or the Icahn proposal in fact constitutes a superior proposal under the existing merger agreement and neither is at this stage sufficiently detailed or definitive for such a determination to be appropriate.”

It said negotiations are continuing.

The committee said the outcome of these negotiations would not be known immediately. It said during negotiations with Silver Lake Partners, Silver Lake raised its bid by six times to a total of about US$4bn.

Blackstone said it would use a combination of equity and debt financing to carry out its purchase, while Icahn Enterprises plans to provide US$1bn cash equity capital in addition to its existing $1bn stock position in Dell and an additional $3bn cash equity capital, providing a $5bn equity commitment.

The outcome could have a serious effect on Dell’s leadership. Blackstone is already said to have had talks with Oracle’s president Mark Hurd about taking over from Michael Dell’s position.

According to a report by news agency Reuters today, Icahn has started talks preliminary talks with Blackstone which could lead to a possible alliance.

Dell said it is currently going through a transition as a company, boosting its offers around IT solutions for businesses to help balance falling personal computing revenues.

For Q1, 2013, it said earnings per share were 27% down on last year’s Q1 figures, to US$0.36.

Michael Dell said the company needs to reshape itself as an end-to-end IT provider.

Servers, storage, networking and services around enhanced productivity seem to be areas of the company that are growing, according to Dell’s latest financial report.