Week in Review: HP and Dell battle for 3PAR, BT ad banned

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Let the bidding commence

We all thought it was going to be so simple last week when Dell made a solid bid of $1.15 billion for storage company 3PAR. However, this week has seen a fight commence between Dell and its rival HP to take control of the company.

As we write this, the current score is three bids each and HP is topping the pile with a staggering $2 billion offer for a company which hasn’t been in profit since it went public back in 2007.

Has HP won though or is Dell going to bounce back again with an even larger bid? We can’t wait to see what happens next week…

BT’s broadband promises

This week saw the end to one of BT’s more famous television adverts as the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) deemed it misleading.

The well-known ad, featuring Love Actually star Kris Marshall, showed an estate agent struggling to get online in peak times with his non-BT connection, whilst Marshall’s girlfriend was happily surfing away with great speeds at home.

However, after a handful of complaints, the ASA ruled the speed claims were misleading customers and the ad had to be axed – the second advert ban for BT in a month.

Best of the rest

In another painful NHS episode, the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust was found in breach of the Data Protection Act after leaving a CD, containing 112 scans of patient records, at a bus stop.

In another head meets desk moment this week, Facebook tried to lay claims to the word “book” by suing another social network – dubbed Teachbook – for an alleged trademark infringement.

But the server market managed a positive week, when analysts claimed to have seen the biggest growth in revenues for seven years.

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