HP Negotiating 3PAR Acquisition, Dell Waiting

3PAR has told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is talking with HP about the latter firm's $1.6 billion bid to acquire 3PAR and its storage technology. If 3PAR decides to accept the HP offer, Dell has three days to file a counter offer and attempt to continue the bidding process it started last week when it kicked off the bidding for 3PAR. Various sources have said that Dell plans to file a sweetened bid for 3PAR.

"3PAR intends to engage in discussions with HP promptly regarding its unsolicited acquisition proposal, and share non-public information with HP regarding 3PAR, in order to more fully evaluate HP's proposal with a view to establishing whether it is a 'Superior Proposal'" 3PAR said in the SEC filing.

The three firms -- 3PAR, Dell and HP -- have been talking privately about an acquisition of 3PAR for several weeks. The discussions came to a head last week when Dell publically announced its offer to acquire 3PAR. HP could simply trump any Dell bid immediately or it could extend the bidding contest.

HP's latest offer for 3PAR represents an 87% premium for the thin-provisioning storage firm's stock price. 3PAR is a valuable property, because it had the vision years ago to begin developing software and hardware as a service over storage and server virtualization. 3PAR's utility approach in which storage users pay for what they use has become popular in cloud computing applications.

FURTHER READING:

Dell To Acquire 3PAR For $1.15 Billion

HP Bids $1.6B For 3PAR, Leapfrogs Dell

Dell To Trump HP Offer For 3PAR