By ‘winning’ 3Par, does HP lose the game?

Our national nightmare is over. Dell has given up its bid for 3Par, declining to match or exceed Hewlett-Packard’s latest $33/share (that’s–gulp– $2.1 billion) cash bid.

For anyone who can remember back that far, Dell’ s initial offer two weeks ago was $18/share or $1.2 billion. Two billion clams: Not bad for a company that has yet to turn a profit.

It will be interesting to see how well (or badly) HP does integrating this latest storage into its already interesting and varied storage lineup.

Dell gets $72 million from 3Par for its trouble.

There’s a lot of talk that HP’s bid is not at all the sort of “disciplined” acquisition the company claimed it will pursue. Many are saying that this is a pyrrhic victory for HP. My storage expert –that would be you Beth–say Dell is a much better fit for 3Par. Dell did a great job integrating EqualLogic while HP has done a much-less-great job with its myriad acquisitions over the past few years.

We’ll see.

Check out more IT channel news on SearchITChannel.com and follow us on Twitter!