HP defeats Dell via inflated bidding war for 3Par

by Steven Mostyn - Sep 3 2010, 06:13

The 3Par Inc. tug-of-war betwixt computer giants Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) is officially over, with HP's superior monetary muscle finally proving too much for its main market rival.

After three weeks of corporate grappling and several bouts of offer and counter offer, Dell has withdrawn itself from the acquisition battle, handing 3Par on a plate to HP after it tabled a far superior bid for the California-based data storage specialist.

HP's victory comes on the back of its latest vastly improved offer of $2.35 billion USD, which equates to around $33 USD per share. Dell had originally offered $18 USD per share when it opened the bidding back on August 16.

The big selling point attributed to 3Par, which, according to Bloomberg now carries a hugely inflated value some 325 times greater than before bidding began, is a cloud-computing process called 'thin provisioning'.

Thin provisioning is a scalable process whereby only as much storage space as needed is assigned at any given moment, enabling the technology holder to offer its customers a significantly more efficient service whilst also cutting down on data storage costs.

According to 3Par, its technology platform can cut storage administration costs by up to 90 percent, while savings to infrastructure could be as high as 75 percent.

While HP ultimately walks away with 3Par safely added to its business portfolio, the world's biggest computer manufacturer will have to shell out $72 million USD in compensation to Dell due to the fact that 3Par's board had initially approved one of its earlier purchase bids.

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