HP tops Dell with new bid for 3PAR

NEW YORK — Hewlett-Packard raised its offer for 3PAR to 33 dollars per share on Thursday in the latest salvo in its bidding war with Dell for the data storage company.The 3PAR board of directors, in a statement, said the HP offer, which values 3PAR at 2.4 billion dollars, was "superior" to a 32 dollar per share bid from Dell.The 3PAR board said the company had informed Dell of its intention to terminate their merger agreement after a period of three business days and enter into a merger agreement with HP.HP said its latest offer would expire on September 24.Computer giants HP and Dell have been bidding for 3PAR since Dell offered 18 dollars per share for the company in mid-August.The board of 3PAR had previously recommended that a Dell bid be accepted and Thursday's statement said a termination fee if 3PAR accepts a bid from another company had been increased from 72 million dollars to 92 million dollars.The latest offers cap an intensifying two-week battle for 3PAR, which focuses on so-called "cloud computing" in which data is stored remotely.Both Dell and HP are hoping the acquisition would offer near-exclusive control over the market of advanced high-end data storage solutions, where 3PAR is the most dominant player.3PAR's technology enables large companies and government bodies to shift to "cloud" storage platforms, giving them extra speed in accessing data and cutting storage costs, according to the company.Shares in 3PAR were up 4.74 percent at 33.60 dollars in early trading in New York while HP was down 0.13 percent at 39.16 dollars and Dell was down 1.73 percent at 11.90 dollars. Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

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