PALO ALTO, FREMONT, Calif., 2. Sept. 2010 – HP hat sich im Bieterstreit um die Auqisition von 3PAR gegen DELL durchgesetzt. Nachfolgend kurzgefaßt verschiedene Auszüge aus den Originalerklärungen beider Firmen zur Übernahme:

“HP and 3PAR Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase 3PAR, a leading global provider of utility storage, through a cash tender offer of $33 per share in cash, or an enterprise value of $2.35 billion. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies... 3PAR also announced that it has terminated its merger agreement with Dell Inc. and paid Dell the $72 million termination fee required to be paid to Dell as a condition to terminating the merger agreement.

HP’s cash tender offer commenced on August 27, 2010 and it is scheduled to expire at 12:00 midnight, New York City time on September 24, 2010, subject to customary tender offer conditions being satisfied. The final closing of the acquisition is expected to occur by the end of the calendar year. HP also announced today the satisfaction of the conditions to its tender offer related to (1) the termination of 3PAR’s merger agreement with Dell and the execution of a definitive merger agreement with HP, and (2) the inapplicability of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law to HP’s tender offer and proposed merger with 3PAR.

“HP and 3PAR is a winning combination that will accelerate HP’s Converged Infrastructure strategy and bolster our ability to provide customers with the industry’s highest levels of performance, efficiency and reliability,” said Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, HP. “We intend to invest in 3PAR’s technology to create long-term value for our stakeholders...”

Unsere Meinung: Da noch nicht sehr viele 3PAR Installationen in deutschen RZ’s zu finden sind, sind potentielle Probleme für Anwender bei der Integrationsphase der Technologie in das Storageportfolio von HP unwahrscheinlich. HP hat sehr viel Geld für die 3PAR-Technik bezahlt und es bleibt nun abzuwarten, wie im Detail die Virtualisierungsfunktionen (aka Thin Provisioning) der 3PAR InServe-Storagearrays in neuer Form innerhalb zukünftiger HP StorageWorks  - Arrays (?)abgebildet werden.

Vorstellbar ist folgender Ablauf: Integration a la OEM-Modell, also einfach die Server an die HP-eigenen Systeme (Microcode, Treiber etc.) anpassen und parallel dazu die Technologie selbst (ASIC-Design, Firmware) zur Entwicklung komplett eigener StorageWorks(?)-Systeme zu verwenden. Vorteil: Der erste Punkte ist schnell realisiert und derzeitige 3PAR-Anwender haben keinen Nachteil – Stichwort Investitionsschutz - da Service & Support sichergestellt ist.

Wir halten Sie zur Roadmap der HP-Storagetechnologie hier auf dem Laufenden.