Following media reports that EMC (EMC) and Dell are in talks about a potential deal that could involve Dell buying all of EMC or just its storage business, Bernstein says it doesn't think that Dell can afford to buy EMC, even if the latter company spins off VMware (VMW). The firm says that it's "unclear" whether EMC would want to buy Dell, since such a deal would "massively" reduce EMC's margins, and nearly half of the combined company's revenues would be generated by PCs or related businesses. The firm says that a merger between EMC and Dell could be concluded if EMC spins out VMware to shareholders and gives current EMC shareholders a stake in the combined EMC/Dell company. However, Bernstein warns that this deal would not provide value to EMC shareholders and would represent "a big gamble" for EMC's board. Finally, Bernstein says that a sale of EMC's storage business to Dell would be "more plausible," but the firm does not see why Dell would want to do such a deal. The firm keeps a $30 price target and Outperform rating on EMC.