Dell (DELL) shares climbed 13% on Monday after the Wall Street Journal reported that private equity firms Silver Lake and TPG have been in talks with the company about going private. The jump in came as a welcome change of pace for Dell shareholders who have seen their stock drop more than 20% in the last year and 40% over the last five years as the company gropes for a way to overcome flagging growth in market for its flagship PC product.

Taking Dell private would eliminate the company's need to resort to financial machinations to create the illusion of growth. Dell's EPS improvements mask stagnant revenues. From fiscal 2009 to the end of fiscal 2012, company revenue climbed from $60.8 billion to $62.8 billion. Of such non-growth are P/E multiples under 10 born.

Hugh Johnson the eponymous CIO of Hugh Johnson Advisors says Dell and other PC-linked companies would be well served by getting out of the spotlight. "They need to do what anybody would do under these conditions, which is get out of the scrutiny of the public," he says in the attached clip.

Private companies don't have satisfy Wall Street's lust for growth. In the name of supporting shares and giving the illusion of earnings growth, Dell spent $2.7 billion buying its own shares in 2012. The pointless buyback is just one of the Sysphean games played by all public companies that go away the second a takeover is complete.

Two of the best-known hedge fund managers in America are battling over supplement maker Herbalife (HLF), with Pershing Square's Bill Ackman attacking from the short side and Third Point's Daniel Loeb hitting back with the recent announcement that he's taken a sizable long position.

Who's ultimately right in terms of the stock's direction amounts to a coin flip at the moment. Both Ackman and Loeb have the capital and the stomach to wage a considerable fight over Herbalife, and neither has said anything to suggest they're in this only for the short haul.

Related: Herbalife Battle: Great Theater, Terrible Trade

Pershing Square has a massive short in Herbalife, meaning it's betting on the stock to fall -- Ackman has questioned the company's business model in which sellers of Herbalife products recruit others and profit from their sales. Third Point, meanwhile, has taken a more than 8% stake in the company, indicating Loeb's clear belief that Herbalife is a legitimate enterprise whose shares will advance when Ackman's doubts are shown to be wrong.

So who's got it right? Hitha Prabhakar, retail analyst and author of "Black Market Billions," says it's not one or the other right now.

"Really they both are winners," she tells Jeff Macke in the accompanying video. Ackman shorted the stock when it was quite a few points higher, and he benefited from a drop of more than 30%. Then Loeb, who is also a director of Yahoo! Inc., the publisher of this website, disclosed his interest, which sent the stock back to the upside.