Dell ups the ante with increased 3PAR bid

Dell has retaliated against HP's offer for 3PAR by upping its own bid by 35 per cent.

Dell initially made an offer of $1.15 billion (0.73 billion) to acquire the virtualisation storage company on 16 August, but its rival, HP, jumped in with its own tender of $1.6 billion a week later, turning a simple acquisition into a bidding war.

Now, just two days later, Dell has upped its offer from $18 per share to $24.30, slightly over the $24 HP had agreed to pay out.

A statement released by the company, fresh from the bid, said: "Dell had previously signed an agreement to acquire 3PAR for $18 per share, with a provision for matching competing bids. Dell and 3PAR have signed an amendment to the agreement reflecting the new offer price."

However, many analysts are waiting for yet another counter bid to come from the HP camp, despite all the internal struggles it has been going through with the sudden, and controversial, departure of chief executive (CEO) Mark Hurd.

3PAR will have to be careful though, as a statement we were given from the company showed it would have to pay a termination fee of $72 million to Dell if it was to accept an "unsolicited acquisition proposal" from another company.

We contacted HP for comment but it had not returned our request at the time of publication.