EMC paid too much for Data Domain, claims NetApp

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Acquisitions tend to catch the imagination of the industry, especially bidding wars, and whilst the current topic might be Sun and Oracle, a NetApp executive has spoken out over its failed attempt to buy Data Domain.

In May this year, NetApp offered $1.5 billion for Data Domain and all seemed well with the deal. Storage giant EMC then put an offer in causing an ongoing bidding battle that saw EMC spending $2.1 billion in cash when it won.

“We think they paid too much, we weren't going to pay that,” said David Dale, global director of industry sales, in an interview with IT PRO.

“We knew what it was worth and we weren't going to be dragged into paying more. We are glad we didn't try to match the price as economically it was not viable.”

He claimed that NetApp was originally interested in the company as it was adjacent to its own.

“It would have been a great way to capture a large portion of the market overnight... but it wasn't a way to fill a gap. EMC needs a focus on deduplication as they are disparate whereas our deduplication is already integrated.”

But has the wrangle with EMC put the company off future acquisitions?

“We are always looking into acquisitions, [be it] other tech or buying someone in an adjacent market that is doing well,” said Dale, “and we now have a ton of money we didn't spend on Data Domain.”

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