A meeting of Dell shareholders this morning had been expected to finally pass judgment on the protracted issue of whether to approve Michael Dell's $24.4 billion proposal to take the company private or Carl Icahn's counteroffer. Alas, the meeting only lasted a few brief moments, enough time for company director Alex Mandl to declare an adjournment of the decision until Wednesday, the 24th of July. Earlier in the week, Reuters came out with a report saying that Michael Dell did not have sufficient backing from investors to put his plan into effect, so the present delay appears to be an effort to buy more time to secure those last few votes.

Update: And another week! Bloomberg reports that Michael Dell's offer has been sweetened to mollify investors and the deadline has now been pushed to August 2nd.