Dell to buy storage firm 3PAR for $1.15 billion

Dell will purchase the data storage firm 3PAR for $1.15 billion in cash, according to an announcement on Monday.

Founded in 1999, 3PAR is a leader in the high-end market for virtualized storage, which allows companies to pay for storage capacity as required rather than purchasing and managing the hardware themselves. The deal will expand the Dell's growing foothold in the storage market while significantly reducing data management costs. Dell previously purchased the storage company EqualLogic in 2007 for $1.4 billion.

“We have aligned our storage offerings over the last several years to provide our customers choice and value,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president of Dell's enterprise product group. “3PAR brings the same values of performance, agility and ease-of-use to higher end, virtualized storage deployments as EqualLogic does for the entry-level and mid-range, rounding out our industry-leading solutions portfolio.”

Under the terms of the deal, Dell will purchase all outstanding shares of 3PAR for $18 a share, almost twice the Friday closing price of $9.65 a share. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.

“3PAR has consistently provided customers with the ability to do more with less,” said 3PAR President and CEO David Scott. “With Dell we combine a powerful, virtualized storage platform with an outstanding distribution network to deliver this value to an even broader set of customers.”