Microsoft has loaned Michael Dell $2 billion allowing him to buy back his company making it a private rather than a public company. Michael Dell himself will be putting $500 million of his own money into buying Dell back, but the total cost of the buyback will total around $24 billion.

On Tuesday, the company announced that Michael Dell had struck a deal to take the company private in the biggest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis began, partnering with Silver Lake and Microsoft to try to turn around the struggling company without public shareholding.

Michael Dell came back as CEO of his company in 2007 and has had about six years to transform his company, but it hasn’t worked. Dell stock has lost half its value during that time, while Dell’s share of the global PC market has dropped from about 14 percent in 2007 to an estimated 11 percent in 2012.

It’s unknown what impact this will have on Microsoft’s business, and whether or not a deal with Surface is on the cards, but the buyout has bought Dell a two more years to turn his company around, without shareholders butting in.