Updated: For months at length, publicly traded Fremont, Calif.-based storage company, 3PAR (s PAR) could barely get above $10 a share. And then a couple of weeks ago, Dell (s DELL) got in its mind that 3PAR was its storage savior and decided to buy the company for $18 a share or about $1.15 billion. “Not so fast,” said Hewlett Packard, (s HPQ) which wanted 3PAR so badly that it raised price to $1.6 billion. And thus began a bidding war, with Dell eventually deciding to pony up roughly $32 a share.
Fast forward to today, HP says it is going to now offer $2.4 billion or $33 a share for 3PAR, and 3PAR says it is cool with that. The bidding is hilarious — and I bet shareholders of 3PAR which include venture funds Mayfield and Menlo Ventures are tickled pink over this corporate chest puffing.
It is hilarious, because nothing really has changed. 3PAR still remains a company that, according to Stifel Nicolaus analyst Aaron Rakers, will bring in $264 million in its calendar year 2011 and make a net profit of a whopping $1.2 million or 2 cents a share. That said, HP seems to be the right buyer for 3PAR.
Update: Dell just conceded . HP wins.
and meanwhile BRCD (with Foundry products) trades at a mere $2.5B (up 20% since 3PAR madness began).
Nice catch! It certainly felt like a case of HP having too much cash and perhaps ego to spend wisely, but maybe my reluctance to bid up a storage co that high is why I’m not a CEO for a Fortune 500 company.