HP finally beats Dell for 3Par

BUYOUTS OF UNKNOWN COMPANIES aren't really our thing but the tug of war between Dell and HP over the storage technology firm 3Par has been fun to watch.

So while Intel decided to go crazy and purchase McAfee and Infineon's wireless division for a little over $9 billion, HP has been hell bent on scuppering Dell's bid to buy the virtualised storage vendor 3Par. Today it finally managed to outbid Dell for the company.

Things started off in a mundane fashion with Dell offering $1.15 billion for the outfit. HP jumped in to offer $1.4 billion but Dell matched HP's offer which then led to another increased offer of $1.6 billion.

After another matching offer from Dell, HP upped the bid to $1.8 billion and finally to $2 billion. At that point we all thought that was that but Dell again matched that offer, prompting a final offer of $2.4 billion for the firm from HP with Dell finally throwing in the towel.

All this frantic bidding has left HP paying more than double the initial offer made by Dell. 3Par shareholders are of course the real winners as they have seen the firm's share price almost triple in less than a month.

Public bidding wars are relatively rare these days and while it makes for a good spectacle, neither Dell nor HP can be particularly happy about the end result. Questions will undoubtedly be raised as to whether HP will have overpaid for 3Par and how Dell will recoup its wasted time and effort.

For HP, the big question is, how can it integrate 3Par within its current operations? Given the joys it had with absorbing Compaq, it will most likely think long and hard about how to make the most of its $2.4 billion acquisition. µ