Stocks felt choppy all day, although the late day move and afternoon stability allowed stocks to have another solid day. Housing starts added some strength, and the buyers are still deciding they need to be in rather than out of the market.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,746.51 +25.07 (0.29%)
S&P 500 945.36 +2.49 (0.26%)
Nasdaq 1,836.89 +8.21 (0.45%)

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A race has broken out for Data Domain Inc (NASDAQ: DDUP). NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) offered $1.5 billion for the company two weeks ago, and EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) decided it had to get in on the action, upping the ante to $1.8 billion yesterday. Data Domain shares gained 16% on the news in late trading yesterday, resulting in EMC's bid carrying a 17% premium.

EMC sees Data Domain as its ticket into the market for software-based storage management, as the target company's products help reduce the amount of disk space needed to store data. With large, high-profile clients like AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and the U.S. Defense Department, Data Domain was able to double its top line to $274 million in 2008. It pulled in net income of $21.6 million last year, up from a loss of $3.7 million in 2007.

Network Appliance (NYSE: NTAP) offered to acquire Data Domain (NYSE: DDUP) for $25. DDUP is a provider of duplication storage appliances for disk backup. DDUP June call option implied volatility is at 45, puts are at 56; near its 26-week average of 49, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement. Puts are more expensive than calls because DDUP is difficult to borrow.

streetTracks Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) closed at $92.25. Gold is recently is recently up .31% to $940.30 according to Bloomberg. GLD June option implied volatility is at 23; July is at 24; below its 26-week average of 37, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

"We need to grow pretty fast," said Frank Slootman, the CEO of Data Domain (NASDAQ: DDUP), in an interview with me. "In the storage industry, you can only be a small company for a short period of time."

If history is any indication, he's spot-on. That is, the storage industry tends to be a winners'-take-all proposition.

The good news for Data Domain is that the company is getting bigger. In fiscal Q4, revenues spiked 151% to $44.9 million over the past year. In fact, there was a 40% increase from the prior quarter. In all, the company posted revenues of $123.6 million last year, which was a hefty 166% increase.

Basically, Data Domain is capitalizing on a megatrend; that is, the transition from tape storage to digital storage. The company calls its technology "deduplication," which is quite efficient and cost-effective.

After just a few years, the customer count now stands at 1,537 (there were 341 new customers in the past quarter). What's more, Data Domain is aggressively expanding into foreign markets, with offices in 22 countries.

And, while there's lots of talk of a slowdown in IT (information technology), Slootman isn't seeing it. "Storage is not a category you can get rid of," he said. "It's something you need.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

One of the hot IPOs this year has been Data Domain Inc. (NASDAQ: DDUP). The company develops data backup technologies, a hot area that is drawing lots of competition.

One interesting rival is ExaGrid Systems, which announced a $20 million venture round this week. The investors include Lehman Brothers Venture Partners (NASDAQ: LEH), Highland Capital Partners, and Sigma Partners.

With the money, ExaGrid plans to expand its business, especially into international markets. In fact, the company believes it will have enough capital to become cash-flow positive.

True, ExaGrid's technology is much better than tape technology (which doesn't seem that hard). But, at the same time, the company has made it easy to use, which is critical for its small to medium size business customers.

Like Data Domain, ExaGrid is growing at a fantastic rate – apparently 40% quarter-over-quarter growth. And, by having Lehman as an investor, it's probably a good bet we'll see ExaGrid hit the public markets at some point.

Visit DealProfiles.com to check out other venture capital transactions.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Data Domain is certainly in a hyper-growth mode. The company develops back-up systems to help with disaster recovery.

With critical data going increasing digital, this is becoming a "must have" for companies.

Another sign of success: the company filed for its IPO today.

Backup systems can be expensive, but Data Domain has a very efficient approach. Other nice features: ease of use and compatibility with enterprise backup systems, such as from EMC (NYSE: EMC), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC).

Over the past two years, Data Domain's revenues have skyrocketed from $8.1 million to $46.4 million. However, the company lost $4 million in 2006.

And the market for Data Domain looks very promising. A report from The Taneja Group forecasts revenue for capacity-optimized storage solutions to grow from $262 million in 2007 to over $1.6 billion in 2010. That's a compound annual growth rate of 83%.

The underwriters include Goldman, Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). The proposed ticker symbol is DDUP.

You can check out the IPO prospectus at the SEC website.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.