A daily digest of IT news, curated from blogs, forums and news sites around the web each morning. We highlight the key commentary and demystify the real story.
HP has triumphed in the bidding war vs. Dell to acquire 3PAR. It now seems certain that HP will buy 3PAR. In recent days, the price has in inched up, as each suitor's offer leapfrogged the other's. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers boggle at the sums involved.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention a silly security statement...
(HPQ) (DELL) (PAR)
Agam Shah reporting for duty:
In an escalating bidding war, HP on Thursday raised its offer for 3Par to $33 per share ... topped Dell's latest offer of $32 per share, according to 3Par. ... Dell's final offer to acquire 3Par was not accepted by 3Par's board of directors.
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The desire to acquire 3Par technology was obvious considering how competitive the market has become, but HP's win isn't necessarily Dell's loss. ... Dell has a good relationship with EMC for high-end storage offerings and could continue to build that relationship.
Derek Kessler makes a classic movie reference:
In a bidding war that ended like a scene out of The Graduate, HP finally placed the winning bid ... clocking in at a hefty $2.4 billion [it's] sure to make 3PARs shareholders very happy. ... To recap, HP and Dell have been going at it since last week, with Dell making the initial unsolicited offer of $1.15 billion.
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Clearly, HP really wanted this one. And yes, this is also twice what HP paid for Palm, and this is for a company most hadnt heard of before the bidding war began.
But Om Malik thinks it's "hilarious":
I bet shareholders of 3PAR which include venture funds Mayfield and Menlo Ventures are tickled pink over this corporate chest puffing.
It is hilarious, because nothing really has changed. 3PAR still remains a company that ... will bring in $264 million in its calendar year 2011 and make a net profit of a whopping $1.2 million or 2 cents a share.
So Shane Schick takes stock:
Never in my career can I recall as public a tussle over a single acquisition. ... The only thing that seems even close was PeopleSofts decision to acquire J.D. Edwards, followed by Oracles decision to acquire PeopleSoft. ... HPs tit-for-tat became increasingly reactive, even desperate. Would owning 3Par really have made Dell all that more formidable?
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Beyond the drama and spectacle ... a more subtle possibility is emerging: that the virtualization and cloud computing strategies being offered by vendors are not living up to expectations, in part because of the hidden expenditures associated with mass volumes of data. ... 3Pars thin provisioning technology promises to allow companies to act more in the moment, carrying a lighter storage footprint and turn some of the claims about virtualization and cloud computing into a reality.
Meanwhile, Neil Shah thinks it's time for a colorful metaphor:
Hewlett-Packard and Dell have looked like two sleazy guys in a bar jockeying for the attention of one shy girl.
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Dell and H-P have a long history of competing over computer sales and executives. ... But the war over Internet-based data-storing seems a little out of step with reality. That raises the question of whether H-P, still recovering from the surprise departure of ex-CEO Mark Hurd, is overcompensating and over-paying for 3PAR.
Richi Jenningsis an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com.
