What Next for Dell?

What will Dell do now that it has finally backed out of the bidding war for 3Par?

Michael Holt, CFA 3 September, 2010 | 11:46AM
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After raising its offer to $33 per share this morning, Hewlett-Packard has finally knocked Dell out of the bidding war for 3Par. At $2.1 billion, the final deal price is extracting an aggressive premium, and HP will have to quickly multiply 3Par's sales to make the numbers work. Nonetheless, the deal makes sense strategically and HP's existing base of high-end storage customers and greater presence in data center sales position the firm to extract greater value from the deal than Dell could.

Looking forward, we expect Dell will continue its aggressive pursuit of enterprise technologies that broaden its product portfolio. As evidenced by other recent acquisitions, the firm is immersed in a strategy to increase focus on data centre solutions rather than PCs. Although there is no clear alternative to 3Par's high-end SAN storage, Dell may look at storage firms such as Isilon that would provide solid technology in a section of the market not served by its EqualLogic product line or EMC reseller agreement. However, with investors pushing the valuations up for storage candidates, it is just as likely that Dell may choose to pursue solutions to build up its networking or software portfolios.

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Michael Holt, CFA  Michael Holt, CFA, is a senior stock analyst with Morningstar.

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