Dell and EMC could be merging. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that Dell and Silver Lake, a private-equity firm, are in advanced talks to buy EMC.

The WSJ reported a deal could be made as early as next week, and could be valued at US$50 billion, which would make it the biggest technology takeover to date. The largest one is currently Avago Technologies’ agreement to buy Broadcom for $37 billion. According to the sources, the deal would include spinning off EMC’s VMware unit.