3Par aquisition: It seems that both Dell and Hewlett Packard are determined to be the new owner of the data storage specialist 3Par. Dell was the first to make a move: the company offered $18 per 3Par share. Dell’s offer was topped by HP – they offered $24 for each share.
Dell’s response was swift: the company topped HP’s offer of $24, but this was not enough to stop the competition: today HP offered 11% more, $30 for every 3Par share, raising the total amount to approximately $1.88 billion. The bidding war has its effect on 3Par’s shares: they have risen over 75% this week.
Why is 3Par so interesting for these two companies?
3Par is providing a next generation data storage service, something called utility storage, a data filing system that offers instant backup and recovery, simple management of the system and on-demand expansion of the storage space. The hardware part of the system consists of large racks filled with hard disks. 3Par’s strong selling point is its operating system that offers centralized control over a storage grid that can span across many physical hardware locations.
3Par’s services are used by companies like MySpace, Hilton Grand Vacations or Credit Suisse.
May HP be the best company to win this bidding war or does Dell have an even better offer up its sleeve? We will see next week…