Round Rock, Texas-based Dell may also decide not to make any such moves at this time, said the people who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

That freed Dell to cut costs and work to become a bigger supplier of hardware and software for corporate data centers without the quarterly investor scrutiny that comes with being a public company.

Three years later, Dell acquired storage-technology provider EMC Corp. and its majority stake in data-center software vendor VMware, taking on a massive debt load to seal the $67 billion deal.

File-sharing company Dropbox Inc. has filed confidentially for an IPO and is aiming to list in the first half of the year, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month.

Spotify, owner of the world’s largest paid music service, plans to execute its unconventional direct listing this quarter, a person familiar with the matter said this month.