Dell Inc. announced today that 3Par Inc. has agreed to accept its $1.6 billion second offer for the data storage company. 3Par has been in the news multiple times recently as Dell initially Dell offered $1.15 billion and then HP came into the picture with an unsolicited $1.6 billion cash bid.  Details of the accepted offer have not been disclosed so far.  3Par became an attractive target with its thin provisioning storage technology which can provide the required storage on demand. The company’s “thin” technology architecture delivers storage capacity more efficiently that a traditional or “fat” provisioning approach. 

Kaufman Brothers analyst, Shaw Wu, stated that HP already has data storage products with technology similar to 3Par.  Meanwhile Dell can improve its profitability by selling its own storage products rather than relying upon EMC to supply them.   Shaw Wu said it is likely that at this stage that HP would only tender a second offer as defensive move to eliminate Dell.   Although Dell is half the size of HP, it has almost as much cash on hand for acquisitions.  Dell shareholders must decide by September 20^th whether or not to accept Dell’s latest offer.

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