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Topic: Banking

HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

Summary: 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.

Larry Dignan

By for Between the Lines |

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 said in a statement:

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:

Topics: Banking, Dell, Enterprise Software, Hewlett-Packard, Legal

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22 comments
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  • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

    Maybe whomever/whatever 3Par is they should just say thanks, but no thanks to both, and go on their way. If they don't watch out, someone like Oracle will come in and take over.
    On a previous message on this subject, someone used and instead of an. no proofreading?
    dhays
    Reply Vote

    • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

      @dhays Incredible run up of the stock.

      Please, no grammar nazism.
      kent42
      Reply Vote

    • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

      @dhays

      Nobody says "Thanks but no thanks" to getting paid triple the market value for their company. :)
      SlithyTove
      Reply Vote

      • Unless they don't like what the new owners might do...

        @SlithyTove
        I know this might be very hard for some to believe, but not ALL of us can be purchased. Sure, it's very TEMPTING to be offered huge bucks. But if the devil offers you the world for your soul, do you take it? Not all buy-outs are a good thing, and some businesses have ethics that say "We do things better than the people trying to buy us out". Or worse, selling out can enable behaviour / realities that are bad for us all. I believe the right view is always the long term view, not necessarily the "cash in my pocket" view.
        naibeeru
        Reply Vote

  • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

    I edit my post and it gets reported as spam? Someone is not reading the messages, evidently.
    I just said i tmeks no difference to me, I never heard of 3Par before. I also said that maybe they should just say thanks, but no thanks to both comapnies, and go on their merry way. A third party could come in and thwart both.
    dhays
    Reply Vote

    • Don't take it too personally...

      @dhays
      It's a bug in the software that hasn't been fixed... YET...

      Refresh the page before you edit and it should work OK.
      Wolfie2K3
      Reply Vote

  • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

    People who write professionally SHOULD pay attention to what they write. It makes their ideas much easier to read and understand. It is much more professional, making their ideas more worthwhile and able to be trusted. It shows a lack of caring about their audience. When someone writes a note full of poor spelling and grammar, it is very hard to read and understand, so quit defending their lack of caring for the customer. I will probably never come back to this page so you can cut me as much as you want, I won't know about it.
    Whatever Naziism is to mean.
    dhays
    Reply Vote

    • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

      @dhays what r u a English teacher? Oops I used single letters for words so I guess I'm not professional
      Par-Pro
      Reply Vote

  • What if ...

    IT company Z wants to buy let's say company A and then sees their opponent IT company X bid for company B. Next thing you know Z bids for B too to drive up the price which then ultimately makes it harder for X to bid for other companies in the near future. And it keeps X's mind off of A (which might be more valuable). Is that what's going on here ?
    TxM2xTx
    Reply Vote

    • Why are all the other numbers afraid of 7?

      @TxM2xTx
      Because 789.

      THAT'S what's going on here.
      ericesque
      Reply Vote

  • Dell should let HP run the price up ...

    ... and let HP take 3PAR. Dell could try to buy Pillar if Larry will let them, and if not go after Compellent.

    3PAR has a good product, but Pillar and Compellent are strong enough at probably 1/3 the price. Also, the confusion a 3PAR acquisition will create for HP storage customers is worth it.

    If you are an HP EVA customer, and HP buys 3PAR, you have a dead-end storage platform. Dell could target that.
    meh130@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

      @meh130@...

      Incorrect. The reason HP is purchasing 3Par is to fill out the upper end of their product line. At the large enterprise end of the spectrum HP is reselling HDS (Hitach) storage. The EVA line is considered midrange storage. This is a great time to be an EVA customer - you can expect some of this storage tech to trickle down into their midrange products. 3Par makes an exceptionally product, in fact, last time I checked the were #1 on the SPC-1 benchmarks.
      jon780@...
      Reply Vote

    • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

      @meh130@...

      Incorrect. The reason HP is purchasing 3Par is to fill out the upper end of their product line. At the large enterprise end of the spectrum HP is reselling HDS (Hitach) storage. The EVA line is considered midrange storage. This is a great time to be an EVA customer - you can expect some of this storage tech to trickle down into their midrange products. 3Par makes an exceptionally product, in fact, last time I checked the were #1 on the SPC-1 benchmarks.
      jon780@...
      Reply Vote

  • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

    This acquisition will be a False Positive for the Winner :P

    The Winner's Curse will weigh heavily on the new Owner of 3PAR...
    Rahul Mulchandani
    Reply Vote

  • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

    If Dell counters this bid, then the shareholders better start asking what their Board of Directors are doing. Even at the original offer by Dell it was contingent on financing, HP does not have that problem. Dell is barely holding on now and is ripe for takeover itself, why are they even contemplating moving into a new area where they are definitely a newcomer, where are they going to get the money to incorporate this and still keep their PC business going. I think Dell would be better off fixing their tarnished PC reputation than taking on something bigger than they are. Dell wake up HP has a gigantic war chest, you have nothing unless Michael Dell underwrites the purchase.
    Rndmacts
    Reply Vote

    • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

      @Rndmacts "Even at the original offer by Dell it was contingent on financing"- False. Dell cash on hand is more like $12.4B. HP has close to $14B.
      Dell-Bill B
      Reply Vote

  • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

    Both of these companies are ridiculous... This is a company that was trading for less than $12 a share. To offer $30 is absurd and one can almost guarantee the acquisition will not pay off as expected. They are making emotional decisions not ones based on sound business sense. Whomever wins this bidding will see their stock value drop significantly.
    Masari.Jones
    Reply Vote

  • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

    By now everyone should understand almost never is the customer considered; it has become, and will continue to be about the shareholders period.
    tonyman262
    Reply Vote

  • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

    Frankly, one of Dell's concerns should be its lack of customer service and its inability to deliver ordered goods in a timely fashion.

    I'm not being a hater, I'm speaking about an Alienware desktop that I just received 2 days ago, that I ordered July 7th. This order was delayed, could not be located by Dell sales persons or their folks in India. The order was cancelled by Dell without my permission. I ordered again and the second order was also delayed.

    It was only by intervention by one of the managers that the order was bird-dogged and expedited. Dell's community forum is loaded with similiar reports for desktops and laptops from both Dell and their Alienware business units.

    I like Dell/Alienware computers, especially since they dumped that sophomoric Alienhead chassis. HP & VooDoo appear to have folded competing in the gaming market.

    I fear my next purchase, I may have to give Falcon-NW a try.
    Too bad, Dell may die the death of a thousand cuts.
    tonyman262
    Reply Vote

  • RE: HP out for Dell blood: Goes to $30 a share for 3Par

    That is what happens when 2 companies who are pathetic in cutting edge software technologies tries to acquire a company which is actually a cutting edge one.

    When either of these companies acquire 3PAR they will ruin the work culture, bring in buerocracy and corruption and fire the talented engineers.
    bhasinusc@...
    Reply Vote
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