NetApp Is a Perfect Takeover Candidate

What would help EMC come from behind and take the lead? Perhaps the acquisition of a well-established, highly innovative company like NTAP could propel EMC into the virtual lead in this three-company race that supposedly includes Symantec (SYMC).

SYMC is the third competitor in this race to become the go-to storage-software provider. Along with IBM and EMC, they all want to attract customers who are having difficulty dealing with their costly data storage centers.

EMC, with its deep pockets ($5.65 billion in total cash) and its $58 billion market cap, could figure out a way to absorb NTAP. It would be a stretch, but bigger coups have been pulled off in the world of technological dominance.

With the current share-price pullback in this sector, the possibilities of a company like NetApp being "swallowed" by a much bigger "fish" is both realistic and, for NTAP shareholders, very promising.

With these technology companies, if you're interested in owning their shares, then be a smart buyer. As my admired colleague Jim Cramer pointed out Tuesday on Real Money: "Good trading, as well as good investing, can often be a function of entry points where you make your first buys. ... You simply don't want that first buy to be too high. You want it to be where, if the stock goes down, you can buy some more without feeling you are going out on a limb or making a good-money-after-bad decision." I couldn't agree more!

At the time of publication, the author held no positions in any of the stocks mentioned, although positions may change at any time.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

Make smarter trading decisions and provide investment ideas that could help make you richer. Bryan Ashenberg does the dirty work so you don't have to!

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