HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par
If Dell wins 3Par it will have to pay up heavily. Just 90 minutes after Dell went to $27 a share to buy 3Par, HP offered $30.
What a game of chicken.
And it's not over, according to traders. Wall Street pushed shares of 3Par above $31, a price that indicates that traders think Dell will counter.
HP has increased its proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of 3PAR to $30 per share in cash, or an enterprise value of $2.0 billion. The proposal represents an 11 percent premium above the most recent price offered by Dell Inc. of $27 per share. HP’s proposal is not subject to any financing contingency and has been approved by HP’s board of directors. Once approved by 3PAR’s board, HP expects the transaction to close by the end of the calendar year.
It's pretty clear at this point that the 3Par purchase is about ego and not really fundamentals. 3Par shareholders must be stoked to be in the middle of a HP-Dell duel. Perhaps 3Par turns out to be the storage acquisition of the century, but this bidding war is all about the chest thumping.
The game of chicken:
- Dell raises bid for 3Par to match HP (again)
- HP raises Dell’s 3Par offer as bidding war continues
- Dell raises 3Par bid, tops HP slightly
- Dell may up 3Par bid; Winner’s curse could follow
- IT Bidding War: HP outbids Dell for 3PAR
- Dell beefs up storage, but EMC partnership could be strained
- What the Dell 3Par deal means to the datacenter
- With 3Par, Dell covers its data center storage bases