EMC wins the bidding war for Data Domain

Posted Jul 9th 2009 2:20PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Deals, EMC Corp (EMC)

To get a valuation juiced up, all it takes is two bidders. And, that's what Data Domain (NASDAQ: DDUP) got. The data deduplication company has been the target of two rival bidders: NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) and EMC (NYSE: EMC).

Well, today the wrangling stopped -- with EMC as the victor. The company has agreed to shell out $2.4 billion for Data Domain.

Why all the interest? Data Domain has disruptive technologies for the tape storage business (which, surprisingly enough, is still quite large). For the most part, the company's solutions drive down costs and boost capacity.

Now, with the enormous install base of EMC, Data Domain's technologies will certainly get lots of traction.

Keep in mind that NetApp's original bid was $25. As for EMC's final offer, it's a juicy $33.50 per share.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and the founder of BizEquity, a free online business valuation tool for small businesses. You can reach him at his personal blog.

Tags: Data Domain, DDUP, EMC, inthenews, NetApp, NTAP