HP announced it had offered $1.8 billion to acquire all outstanding shares in the firm yesterday, an 11 percent increase on the $1.6 billion offered by Dell only hours earlier.
This is the second time HP has outbid its competitor, having previously bid $1.6 billion to trump Dell’s initial $1.2 billion earlier in the week.
In a statement yesterday, Dave Donatelli, HP’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, said: “Not only is our offer superior to Dell’s proposal, HP remains uniquely positioned to execute on this combination given the number of synergies between the two companies.”
3Par specialises in software for data storage and information management, a subject both bidders are interested in for its potential in cloud computing, technology which allows users to remotely access files and applications through the internet.
HP has also been using the technology in its latest printers, having released its first wave of cloud-aware devices in June.
In a statement yesterday, Dell said storage was at the “forefront” of their strategy.
“With the 3PAR acquisition, Dell with have the broadest set of differentiated storage solutions in the market today,” said Dave Johnson, Senior Vice President of Dell Corporate Strategy.