In the end, it took $24.30 a share — roughly a quarter and nickel more than what Hewlett Packard (s hpq) offered — for in-play storage company 3PAR (s par) to say yes to Dell (s DELL), even though it makes more sense for HP to acquire the company. Dell first offered $1.15 billion for 3PAR and later HP countered with a $1.6 billion offer. Now Dell is offering $1.6 billion net of 3PAR’s cash.

This is the second time HP has been spurned by 3PAR. If HP needs to make a counter offer, it would have to do it soon. Many analysts believe there’s another battle coming in the ongoing bidding war. ThinkEquity analyst Rajesh Ghai says HP will win 3PAR and the bid from HP won’t be that much higher. “The market’s clearly saying the bidding’s coming to an end,” he told the Wall Street Journal. UBS analyst Mayn ard Um also expected a counter offer.

Related Research from GigaOM Pro: Infrastructure Overview, Q2 2010