HP again trumps Dell’s bid for 3PAR to $1.8 billion

The battle between two computer giants Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell for the control of data storage company 3PAR once again escalated after HP yesterday topped Dell's latest offer by 11 per cent to $1.8 billion.

It took HP, the world's largest computer company, just hours to top Dell's bid of $24.30 a share or $1.6 billion yesterday, by offering $27 a share or $1.8 billion.

Texas-based Dell had initially on 16 August made an offer to acquire Fremont, California-based 3PAR for $18 per share in cash, (See: Dell to acquire data-storage company 3Par for $1.13 billion) and a week later, HP made a counter offer of $24 per share in cash, a 33.3-per cent premium on the price proposed by Dell. (See: HP tops Dell's bid for data storage firm 3Par) 

Yesterday Dell had raised its bid for 3PAR Inc by offering $24.30 a share or $1.6 billion and announced that 3PAR had accepted its increased offer, which is net of 3PAR's cash. (See: Dell escalate bidding war with HP for 3Par with $1.6-bn bid) 3PAR not only accepted Dell's $24.30-a-share offer, but agreed to a raised termination fee of $72 million from the earlier $53.5 million.

The battle to acquire the 11 year-old company launched by a group of server-cluster engineers from Sun MicroSystems has seen 3PAR's stock shoot up by nearly three times since Dell made the first move for the little-known data-storage company just 10 days ago.

Prior to Dell's initial bid, 3PAR was trading at around $10 per share and according to some analyst's, Dell's first offer of $18 per 3PAR share itself was too high as the company has barely made a profit since it was founded in 1999.