Well, Dell came through with a second counter-offer for 3PAR early on Aug. 26, as expected. Now it’s Hewlett-Packard’s turn to respond in the full-fledged bidding war for the relatively small (600-person) — but very popular — utility storage company in Fremont, Calif.
There wasn’t any word right away from HP, and of course there wouldn’t be. Big companies, like 350-pound offensive linemen in football, are powerful but tend to move slowly.
Dell looked around and found some extra dough lying around, apparently. The Round Round, Texas company offered $1.15 billion ($18 per share) on Aug. 16, so it managed to scrounge up another measly half billion to make this competitive even more interesting. Perhaps Michael Dell found it in the ashtray of his car.
We suspect HP isn’t finished yet. Its Aug. 23 offer for $1.5 billion was in cash, so there’s a sneaking suspicion that more cash and other considerations (stock, etc.) might come into play here.
As usual, The Station is all over it. Stay tuned.