EMC Extends Data Domain Bidding

With the deadline for its offer looming, EMC decided to extend its $30 per share deal to Data Domain until midnight, July 10. It was originally set to expire Monday, June 29.

Data Domain (NASDAQ: DDUP) has enjoyed something of a rarity in the tech sector these days: multiple suitors. The firm is the object of a bidding war between EMC (NYSE: EMC) and NetApp.

What EMC hopes to achieve is unclear, since Data Domain already rejected the offer on June 15 and said EMC’s offer is not in the best interest of its shareholders and that it prefers a bid from NetApp. Thus far, however, there have been no further statements since the 15th from either Data Domain or NetApp.

EMC is behind the eight ball and not just due to Data Domain’s preference. It only owns a 0.5 percent stake in Data Domain, while NetApp holds 20 percent of the company’s stock.

Data Domain makes data deduplication technology that goes through a storage system and eliminates unnecessary extra copies of files. Companies find it easy to lose track of what they have and wind up with many copies of the same file.

Having multiple revisions of a file and storing them for historical purposes is one thing, but having dozens of copies of the exact same file scattered across a storage system is something else.

It’s a hot topic, one that even PC giant Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) recently got into with its own storage management software that does deduplication scanning. It’s also served to stir up interest in Data Domain.

NetApp started the ball rolling with a bid of $25 per share, or $1.5 billion. EMC then saw their bid and raised them to $30 per share, or $1.8 billion. NetApp then matched the offer. That’s quite a premium for a company with $300 million in sales, even if it is enjoying an enviable 30 percent annual growth rate.

“EMC’s $30 per share all-cash offer remains superior to NetApp’s stock and cash offer and, very importantly, delivers to Data Domain stockholders the price certainty and price protection its management team and board stated as important priorities during their negotiations with NetApp,” said Joe Tucci, EMC Chairman, president and CEO in a statement.

“We continue to anticipate a routine review by the FTC resulting in a timely regulatory approval. We look forward to the execution of the definitive agreement and closing of the transaction with EMC.”

Article courtesy of InternetNews.com.

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