Tech Weekly - 3Par Bidding War Intensifies
NEW YORK (
) - Investors were treated to yet more twists in
Hewlett Packard
(HPQ) - Get Report
and
Dell's
(DELL) - Get Report
for
3Par
(PAR) - Get Report
this week.
On Friday, before market open, Dell announced that 3Par had
accepted its revised offer of $27 a share in cash
, or $1.8 billion. Hot on the heels of Dell's announcement, however, HP upped the ante ,
, for a total purchase price of almost $1.9 billion. Don't be surprised if this one runs for some time, spelling further good news for 3Par investors.
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3Par's stock surged almost 80% this week in response to HP and Dell's brinksmanship, which has also
thrust a slew of other storage players into the spotlight.
In other M&A news,
acquisition rumors are swirling around software maker ArcSight (ARST)
, which was one of
TheStreet's
The
Wall Street Journal
reported on Thursday that
ArcSight has put itself on the auction block
, causing the company's stock price to rise almost 30%. Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal reported that potential buyers, including
Oracle
(ORCL) - Get Report
and
Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ) - Get Report
, could pay up to $1.5 billion for the company.
EMC
(EMC)
,
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
and
CA
(CA) - Get Report
are also possible purchasers, it added.
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
, which announced plans to buy
McAfee
(MFE)
for $7.7 billion last week, was also in the news on Friday. Citing weaker-than-expected demand for consumer PCs
Intel warned that its third-quarter revenue will be below the company's previous outlook.
The chip giant said in a press release that it now expects third-quarter revenue to be $11 billion, plus or minus $200 million, compared with the previous expectation of between $11.2 billion and $12 billion.
Investors, however, largely shrugged off Intel's announcement. The company's shares briefly dipped into negative territory but closed up 19 cents, or 1.05%, at $18.37.
Late Friday it was also revealed that
Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Report co-founder Paul Allen's Interval Licensing is leading a patent infringement lawsuit against several tech and retail giants
on behalf of his now defunct firm
Interval Research
.
The list of companies targeted by the suit include Apple,
(GOOG) - Get Report
,
,
Netflix
(NFLX) - Get Report
,
Yahoo!
(YHOO)
,
eBay
(EBAY) - Get Report
,
Staples
(SPLS)
and
Office Depot
(ODP) - Get Report
. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, Seattle, targets ecommerce and search technology that Interval says it developed and intends to defend.
In gadget news, the smartphone market saw the arrival of a new player this week, with
Dell launching the Aero, its first-ever U.S. smartphone
. The Android device, however, is late to the smartphone party, and faces stiff competition from
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
,
Research In Motion
(RIMM)
and
Motorola.
(MOT)
The empire of the fruit takes center stage next week. Apple will host an iPod event in San Francisco on Wednesday amid
heavy speculation that an Apple TV announcement is imminent.
VMware
(VMW) - Get Report
will also be busy in San Francisco next week, with the virtualization trailblazer
hosting its annual VMworld event in the city.
ArcSight is also on deck next week. The software maker reports its first-quarter results after market close on Thursday.
--Written by James Rogers in New York.
>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to
http://twitter.com/jamesjrogers
.
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