Dell Technologies saw its stock spike this morning following a report that the company was looking at a way to monetize its VMware subsidiary. The report, which also sent VMware’s stock soaring, is the latest in a long line of moves tied to Dell Technologies attempting to unlock the financial value of its growing VMware business.

The Wall Street Journal reported that “people familiar with the matter” claim Dell has started a review process for its VMware stake. That review process could include “unloading the stake or taking other steps that could include buying the rest of the cloud-software giant.”

The review is focused on two outcomes: reducing Dell’s considerable debt load and goosing its lagging stock price.

“We think Dell’s motivation to explore strategic alternatives is likely driven by Dell’s poor relative stock performance since going public through a complicated process in December 2018,” wrote BMO Capital Markets Keith Bachman in a note on the report. He also laid out three possible macro paths for Dell Technologies, though all were encumbered by the company’s significant debt load. The BMO Capital Markets report listed Dell Technologies with $57 billion in gross debt and $44 billion in net debt.

Dell Technologies CTO Tom Sweet noted in a recent blog post that the company was focused on its capital structure and debt.

“We are focused on creating long-term value for stakeholders and optimizing our capital structure,” Sweet wrote. “Our liquidity position is strong with more than $13 billion of cash and investments at the end of our first fiscal quarter. … We intend to reduce core debt by roughly $5.5 billion this fiscal year and use the proceeds from our first quarter bond issuance to pay down an additional $2.25 billion this year.”

The Wall Street Journal report did send Dell Technologies stock up more than 6% early Wednesday to nearly $55 per share, which is a level it has not seen since last November. VMware’s stock saw a similar surge to nearly $162 per share.

Piper Sandler Senior Research Analyst Jim Fisher placed a minimum $200 per share value on VMware’s stock tied to the rumored Dell Technologies deal.

However, The Wall Street Journal report also noted that any move would likely have to wait at least a year as Dell Technologies can’t spin off its VMware stake tax-free until September 2021. That is tied to Dell Technologies’ $67 billion merger with EMC that closed in 2016.

The report is the latest in what has been a long and winding tale of Dell Technologies’ convoluted control structure over VMware.

Dell Technologies initially acquired 81% control over VMware as part of the EMC merger. That deal also included EMC’s Pivotal and RSA businesses. At that time, Dell Technologies was a private company and EMC was public, with the resulting company being private.

Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell eventually managed to take his enlarged operations public in 2018, a process that did not involve a formal initial public offering.

Dell Technologies earlier this year sold its RSA security business to private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG) for $2.075 billion. That followed VMware’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Carbon Black last year that bolstered its security stance.

VMware last year also acquired Pivotal, which was already majority owned by Dell Technologies, for $2.7 billion.

Dell Technologies’ most recent earnings showed relatively stable year-over-year results and a cautious tone on the tech giant riding out the current COVID-19 storm. VMware remained a continuing bright spot for the company, which reported results that exceeded expectations.