Dell in talks to acquire Compellent

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Dell is making another bid to buy up storage technology, with the revelation today it is in talks with storage software company Compellent.

Discussions were said to be in an “advanced” stage between the two firms, who released a joint statement earlier today.

In the statement, the companies said they had “entered into an exclusive agreement to negotiate a merger agreement” for Dell to buy up all of Compellent’s common stock at a price of $27.50 (£17.41) a share. This would equate to around $900 million in total for the company.

However, after being burnt by negotiations with 3PAR – which saw HP snap up the company following an intense bidding war – Dell was being much more reserved about the prospects for the deal.

“There can be no assurances that an agreement will be reached or that a transaction will be consummated,” said the statement from the companies. “Dell and Compellent do not intend to comment further until an agreement is reached or discussions are terminated.”

Compellent made its name from its Fluid Data storage product, which automatically manages data at block level. It was marked as a company to watch by Andrew Reichman, senior analyst at Forrester Research, during an interview with IT PRO back in October.

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