Here is an excellent article from SearchStorage.com.
“Dell Inc. executives this week repeated their claims that the vendor is looking for acquisitions, without giving much hint about who’s on the shopping list. But data storage figured prominently in Dell’s analyst day presentations on Tuesday, and execs pointed to EqualLogic as a model acquisition.
Founder and CEO Michael Dell hailed EqualLogic for its solid technology, and said revenue from its iSCSI storage systems has grown four times since Dell acquired it in early 2008.
Dell also said any acquisition target would have to fit into the vendor’s channel sales strategy, be easy to integrate and have financial stability with good profit margins. Dell hasn’t specifically limited its acquisition talk to data storage, and RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani wrote in a note to clients, “We do not believe investors received a firm idea of how this might unfold at the analyst day. Management vaguely indicated it would likely look to do a ‘portfolio’ of acquisitions that would augment its penetration in favorable submarkets.”
Nonetheless, Dell’s statements about looking to expand through “inorganic growth” and move deeper into the enterprise and data center is sparking speculation about what companies would be likely candidates. “Given the data presented, we would not be surprised if targets were found in services and software given anticipated near-term annual growth rates of 6% and 8%, respectively,” Daryanani wrote in his note.
Industry insiders are drawing up lists of storage companies that fit Dell’s criteria and might help the vendor expand. Here are some of their candidates:
3PAR Inc.
The high-end disk array vendor’s growth took a hit this week when 3PAR said it expects to report a sequential revenue decline for last quarter. However, analysts see 3PAR as a good technology fit for Dell.
“3PAR would fit nicely into their portfolio,” said Jeff Boles, senior analyst and director of validation services at Hopkinton, Mass.-based Taneja Group. “[Dell] already has the small and medium enterprise and entry-level markets pretty well covered. Their opportunity is to expand their footprint up market.”
3PAR’s InServ Storage Server systems compete with EMC Corp.’s Symmetrix, as well as with systems at the high end of the Clariion platform, which Dell resells. But competing with partner EMC didn’t stop Dell from buying EqualLogic, which competes against the lower end Clariion models.
CommVault Systems Inc.
In a Q&A with SearchStorage.com last year, Dell storage vice president and general manager Darren Thomas downplayed the idea of buying a storage software vendor. But CommVault has the profitability, high margins and recurring revenue streams that Dell wants. It’s also a Dell partner. Boles sees similarities to where CommVault is as a company and where EqualLogic was when Dell picked it up for $1.4 billion. “Dell has tended to buy someone with revenue ramping pretty aggressively,” he said.”
Read the full article here.
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