EMC acquires majority stake in Data Domain

IDG News Service - EMC has officially acquired majority ownership of storage vendor Data Domain after a bidding war with NetApp.

After an initial stock purchase offering period ended Friday, EMC acquired 78.2% of the outstanding Data Domain shares, in addition to the 3.9% of shares previously held by EMC, the company said in a news release.

A second offering period ending Wednesday will allow Data Domain shareholders to sell their stock at $33.50 a share, the original price offered by EMC. As of mid-day Monday, Data Domain shares were trading at $33.51 on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Early this month, Data Domain signed a merger agreement with EMC and terminated a previously announced merger deal with NetApp.

Data Domain agreed to a $1.5 billion bid from NetApp on May 20, but EMC countered with an unsolicited offer of $1.8 billion. NetApp raised its bid, but early this month, EMC countered with a $33.50-per-share, $2.1 billion offer.

EMC said it expects to complete the merger and close the acquisition shortly, as long as it controls 90% of the outstanding Data Domain shares. The company plans to make Data Domain the foundation of a new product division within EMC's storage business. Frank Slootman, Data Domain's president and CEO, will lead that new division.