EMC has made an offer for data deduplication specialists, Data Domain.
The full cash offer of $1.8 billion (1.09 billion) undermines the cash and stock offer made by NetApp two weeks ago.
EMC also published a letter from Joe Tucci, chief executive of the company, saying the firm had already shown interest in the acquisition before NetApp's bid.
A statement from EMC has said the offer is 20 per cent higher than that of NetApp and the cash it proposes to use is already sat in the bank waiting to be spent, not depending on any finance agreements.
It also reveals its reasoning behind wanting the company highlighting Data Domain's "fast-growing revenue base, its strong data protection-focused management team and sales force and its highly complementary storage software technology."
Tucci said in a statement: "Strategically, this combination will further enhance our ability to broaden EMC's best-in-class storage portfolio for the benefit of EMC and Data Domain customers and this, in turn, will accelerate EMC's top-and bottom-line growth rates. Our substantially superior proposal is a win-win for both companies."
Data Domain declined to comment.
A former employee of NetApp, who prefers to remain anonymous, thinks the EMC offer is the one to take.
He said: "Half of the employees of NetApp left to move to Data Domain so it wouldn't work. You can't go from saying you want to beat the company and you are better than them then make friends with them. The EMC one is a better offer. All cash or cash and stocks, which would you take?"
IT PRO contacted NetApp for comment but it had not returned our request at the time of publication.
