U.S. data storage firm 3PAR plans to accept HP's bid

U.S. data storage company 3PAR Inc. said on Friday night that it intended to enter merger agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), calling HP's offer "superior" than what rival Dell Inc. has proposed.

HP said earlier in the day that it is now willing to acquire all of the outstanding shares of 3PAR at 30 U.S. dollars per share, hours after Dell announced that 3PAR has accepted its increased offer of 27 dollars per share that matched the previous bid made by HP on Thursday.

HP's latest bid valued 3PAR, now headquartered in Fremont in the U.S. state of California, at about 2 billion dollars.

In a statement issued late Friday night, 3PAR said its board of directors had notified Dell of its intention to terminate their agreement and its planning to accept HP's acquisition proposal.

Dell first signed an agreement to purchase 3PAR for 18 dollars per share, but HP then countered with a higher offer of 24 dollars per share.

Dell sweetened its bid to 24.3 dollars per share on Thursday, which was trumped again in the same day by HP with the offer of 27 dollars per share.

The public bidding war between HP and Dell came as the two personal computer giants are striving to diversify their business and push into enterprise data center as well as other more profitable markets.

3PAR is a provider of highly-virtualized storage solutions called "utility storage," designed to be the storage foundation for utility computing that enables information technology organizations to deliver software and hardware as a service through server and storage virtualization.

Source: Xinhua