Michael Dell's family office backs a $7.7bn take-private of insurance broker Baldwin
DFO Management and Sequence Holdings have agreed to acquire The Baldwin Group in an all-cash deal valued at about $7.7bn, one of the largest public-to-private transactions led by a single family office.
On 14 September 2026, The Baldwin Group, a Nasdaq-listed insurance distribution firm based in Tampa, agreed to be taken private in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $7.7bn. The buyer is an entity formed by Sequence Holdings, a permanent holding company, and DFO Management, the family investment office of Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell.
Baldwin shareholders will receive $32.50 per share in cash, a premium of roughly 88% to the closing price on 17 June 2026, the day before press reports that the company was exploring a sale. The $7.7bn figure is an enterprise value: about $4.6bn of equity plus roughly $3.1bn of net debt assumed or refinanced, implying around 20 times trailing twelve-month adjusted EBITDA of some $396m. Employees who hold equity may roll part of it into the private company and keep a minority stake. Completion is expected in the first quarter of 2027, subject to a shareholder vote and regulatory clearances.
Permanent capital as the pitch
DFO was set up in 1998 as MSD Capital and restructured under its current name at the end of 2022. In the announcement, Michael Dell framed the structure itself as the differentiator: DFO “invests with the flexibility and patience of permanent capital, not as a fund working against a fixed exit clock”. Baldwin’s chief executive, Trevor Baldwin, tied the deal to the pace of technology investment rather than to a change of strategy.
Reuters reported that Baldwin shares closed at $31.89 on the day of the announcement, up 7.5% and short of the offer price, which is the usual market discount for deal risk on a transaction that will not close for two quarters.
The adviser bench this required
The line-up is worth reading closely, because it shows what a family office needs around it to run a listed-company buyout. Ardea Partners led for Baldwin, with Davis Polk & Wardwell as legal adviser, Troutman Pepper Locke on insurance regulatory matters and MarshBerry as an additional financial adviser. The independent special committee retained Perella Weinberg Partners and Potter Anderson & Corroon. On the buy side, Piper Sandler led financially and Moelis acted as sole capital markets adviser, with Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Wells Fargo alongside. Latham & Watkins advised Sequence; Sullivan & Cromwell advised DFO.
What it means for family offices
Direct investing at this end of the market is not an extension of the portfolio; it is an acquisition programme with its own legal and regulatory perimeter. A take-private brings a proxy statement, a Schedule 13E-3 filing, insurance regulatory approvals and a special committee process, none of which sits naturally with a private client adviser used to trusts and reporting. Families building towards deals of this kind generally end up running two adviser benches, and the second one is expensive.
The “patient capital” argument is also becoming a competitive tool in auctions rather than a statement of philosophy. Where a private equity bidder has to explain its exit, a family office can offer management an open-ended horizon and employee rollover. That is a real advantage against funds, and it will be tested by how the buyer behaves three or four years in, when the same discipline has to come from governance rather than from a fund clock.
Sources: Business Wire — The Baldwin Group release; Reuters, via The Star.