10:09 a.m. ET UPDATE: Shortly after this story was published, HP again raised its bid for 3PAR, offering $30 per share. No word yet on whether Dell will counter the latest offer.
Validating the predictions of financial insiders who expected a protracted bidding war, Dell today matched the latest offer from rival HP to buy data storage vendor 3PAR, saying it would offer 3PAR shareholders $27 per share. As it has with previous Dell offers, 3PAR’s board of directors accepted the $1.8 billion deal.
The latest offer furthers a frenetic tug-of-war between HP and Dell for control of 3PAR. Both companies want 3PAR’s advanced data storage technology for use in their cloud computing offerings. 3PAR’s InServ data storage technology, built on its InSpire architecture, complements server virtualization technologies, among them VMWare, Microsoft’s Hyper-V, and Citrix’s XenServer; as well as cloud computing arrays in public or private settings; utility computing environments; and well-known operating systems and database platforms.