Wednesday, June 3, 2009

NetApp tops EMC’s buyout offer for Data Domain

By Mass High Tech staff

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Just two days after Hopkinton-based EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) bid $1.8 billion for data duplication software maker Data Domain Inc. (Nasdaq: DDUP), previous suitor NetApp (Nasdaq: NTAP) topped the EMC offer with its own increased bid of cash and stock totaling $1.9 billion.

EMC, whose Monday offer was about 20 percent higher than NetApp’s original bid for California-based Data Domain, said after the NetApp announcement yesterday that it doesn’t plan to increase its offer but that the all-cash EMC bid, which is not subject to financing, is superior to the NetApp proposal.

The cash portion of each competing bid amounts to about $30 per share.

Joseph Tucci, chairman, president and CEO of EMC, addressed a letter to Data Domain president and CEO Frank Slootman, expressing disappointment at not receiving early notice for a possible acquisition and discovering the company’s buyout intentions after NetApp had made its initial proposal.