3Par accepts Dell’s increased $1.6B offer for its data storage business

The battle between Dell and HP for the hand of data storage company 3Par is finally over. Dell announced this morning that 3Par has accepted its $1.6 billion bid — an increase over its $1.15 billion offer from last week.

HP this week had also offered $1.6 billion for the company (at $24 a share), but given that 3Par had previously rejected an earlier offer from the company, it didn’t seem as if it was too enthused over HP’s increased offer.

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As I wrote previously, the deal would give Dell a stronger presence in the storage market and make it a competitor to HP, IBM, and others. 3Par provides “a leading, virtualized, utility storage platform” — all the right buzzwords these days — and promises to help Dell’s customers reduce their total data storage costs by 50 percent. Its products are designed to help customers efficiently buy and use the right amount of storage and are also geared towards minimizing power consumption and energy costs.

3Par has raised over $183 million since its founding in 1999, with backing by Integral Capital Partners, Alliance Bernstein, Open Field Capital, Mayfield Fund, Worldview Technology Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Van Wagoner Capital Management. It went public in 2007, even though it was losing money at the time.