Dell Ups 3PAR Offer to $1.6B, HP Parries With $1.8B Bid

Hewlett-Packard Co. Thursday raised its offer for 3PAR Inc. to $27 per share, or $1.8 billion, countering a $24.30 a share, or $1.6 billion, bid Dell Inc. tendered earlier in the day, escalating the tussle between the two companies for the relatively small $200 million storage vendor.

HP's offer for 3PAR tops Dell's latest bid by about 11 percent, officials said. The vendor said that its board of directors has approved the offer.

“Not only is our offer superior to Dell’s proposal, HP remains uniquely positioned to execute on this combination given the number of synergies between the two companies,” said Dave Donatelli, HP executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking.

3PAR did not issue an immediate response to HP's higher offer.

3PAR confirmed that it has agreed to Dell’s $24.30 per share offer and, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), consented to pay Dell some $72 million should 3PAR receive and accept another offer its board of directors considers superior.

Prior to HP's revised bid, 3PAR said that its board of directors "continues to unanimously recommend that 3PAR stockholders accept Dell's tender offer and tender their shares in the offer."

3PAR shares closed Thursday at $26.03--nearly $2 higher than Dell’s per share offer--but in after hours trading the stock jumped to $27.79, $.30 above the company’s previous 52-week high and $.79 above HP's latest bid.

Since 3PAR publicly disclosed its courtships with Dell and HP the storage vendor’s shares have jumped about 175 percent.

Dell initially offered $18 a share for 3PAR two weeks ago, which HP countered earlier this week with a $24 per share bid, fully one-third higher than Dell proposed.

3PAR’s initial agreement with Dell allowed the computer maker to match competing bids.