Dell is to buy cloud storage company Compellent Technologies for $960 million (€713 million) in the latest of a string of recent major storage deals in the ICT industry.
Compellent provides virtual storage and data management solutions for enterprise and cloud computing environments, and should put Dell back in the game against rival HP, which won a bidding war to acquire storage firm 3Par earlier this year.
Dell will integrate Compellent into its storage business and look to hold onto its business in the US. It states the purchase, which net of Compellent’s cash is worth $820 million, should close in 2011.
However, the acquisition could signal the end of Dell’s re-selling agreement with EMC – an intention first highlighted by the firm’s chase for 3Par, Forbes reported.
Several computing firms have been chasing storage outfits during 2010.
In addition to HP’s acquisition of 3Par for $2.35 billion, IBM in September acquired data management and analytics company Netezza for $1.7 billion, and EMC last month picked up networked storage firm Isilon Systems for $2.25 billion.
Dell’s share price fell almost 4% to $13.35 on news of the acquisition, but recovered slightly to $13.43 in after-hours trading.