HP ups the stakes to $2 Billion in 3PAR acquisition

It seems Dell cannot make an acquisition bid for virtualized storage company 3PAR without competitor HP making a bigger bid almost immediately afterward.

Just hours after Dell announced its revised offer to acquire memory company 3PAR for $1.6 billion on Thursday, HP announced a new counter-offer for $1.8 billion. HP's last counter-offer caused Dell to raise its bid by a little under 34%, and that offer raised it by another 11%.

Dell announced Friday morning that it had matched HP's bid to acquire 3PAR for $27 per share in cash, or approximately $1.8 billion, and that the memory company has approved the acquisition terms.

"3PAR and Dell have signed a second amendment to their previously announced merger agreement reflecting the new offer price, and maintaining the termination fee unchanged at $72 million, which is payable in the event that 3PAR receives and accepts another unsolicited acquisition proposal that its board determines to be superior to Dell's increased offer," a statement from 3PAR on Friday said.

But once again, not long after Dell and 3PAR announced they were tentatively moving forward, HP raised the bid by another 11% to $30 per share in cash, or an enterprise value of $2.0 billion.

Dell and 3PAR have not yet responded to the counter-offer.