Dell, 3PAR, Hewlett-Packard, EMC and International Business Machines

CHICAGO--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Zacks.com Analyst Blog features: Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: [ DELL ]), 3PAR Inc. (NYSE: [ PAR ]), Hewlett-Packard Co. ([ HPQ ]), EMC Corp. (NYSE: [ EMC ]) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: [ IBM ]).

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Here are highlights from Mondaya�s Analyst Blog:

HP Counter-Bids for 3PAR

Within a week after Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: [ DELL ]) announced an agreement to acquire 3PAR Inc. (NYSE: [ PAR ]) for a total consideration of $1.15 billion, the worlda�s largest PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co. ([ HPQ ]) made a counter bid. The intense contest for 3PAR is reflective of both Dell and HPa�s goal to expand beyond personal computers to markets that could generate higher profits.

HP has offered a hefty $1.6 billion or $24 per outstanding common share of 3PAR. The total consideration reflects a 33% premium over Della�s cash consideration. HP exited the recently concluded third quarter with a strong cash balance, which indicates that it could easily snap up an acquisition such as this one.

On August 16, Dell had signed a definitive agreement to acquire enterprise storage products manufacturer 3PAR Inc. in an all cash deal of $1.15 billion, reflecting $18 per outstanding common share of 3PAR. The offer price was an 86.5% premium over the closing price of the day before the deal was announced. Dell intended to integrate 3PARa�s storage solutions into its innovative storage portfolio to offer targeted solutions for every storage vertical.

Founded in 1999, 3PAR evolved as the leading provider of systems and software for data storage and information management. 3PAR pioneered in the creation of athin provisioning,a which is a mechanism that applies to large-scale centralized computer disk storage systems, Storage Area Networks (SANs) and storage virtualization systems. Thin provisioning allows easy allocation of space to servers, as and when required. 3PARa�s primary competitors in the enterprise storage market are EMC Corp. (NYSE: [ EMC ]), Hitachi Data Systems, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: [ IBM ]) and HP.

With the acquisition, HP intends to strengthen its innovative Converged Infrastructure solutions. The solutions bring together servers, storage and networking products to manage a data center from a common platform. 3PARa�s broad array of storage solutions would further augment HPa�s converged infrastructure offerings, thus enabling the company to deliver an even broader platform to customers.

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Dell, 3PAR, Hewlett-Packard, EMC and International Business Machines