HP has announced that it has increased its proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of 3PAR to $27.00 per share in cash, or an enterprise value of $1.8 billion. The proposal represents an 11 percent premium above the most recent price offered by Dell Inc. of $24.30 per share. HP's proposal is not subject to any financing contingency and has been approved by HP's board of directors. Once approved by 3PAR's board, HP expects the transaction to close by the end of the calendar year.

"Our revised proposal offers superior value to 3PAR's shareholders, while maintaining our disciplined approach to only pursuing acquisitions that we believe will strengthen our portfolio and create long-term value for our shareholders," said Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, HP. "Not only is our offer superior to Dell's proposal, HP remains uniquely positioned to execute on this combination given the number of synergies between the two companies."

The addition of 3PAR's next-generation storage architecture will accelerate HP's Converged Infrastructure strategy, providing customers with an unmatched portfolio of intellectual property across storage, server and networking solutions. 3PAR's high-performance storage systems will further strengthen HP's ability to deliver the highest levels of performance, efficiency and scalability to customers worldwide. The combination will bolster HP's storage offerings and diversify its portfolio across key growth markets.