Dell: Enterprise Strategy Doesn't Depend on 3Par Bid

From PC World: Dell may have lost out to Hewlett-Packard in the bidding war for storage vendor 3Par earlier this month, but the computer maker wasn't pained by the decision to walk away.

"At some point, winning is losing. You get [the company], but it's way too expensive," said Praveen Asthana, vice president of strategy and technology at Dell's enterprise solutions group, during an interview in Singapore.

Dell walked away from the bidding for 3Par on Sept. 2, after the company rejected Dell's US$32 per share bid in favor of a $33 per share offer from Hewlett-Packard. The decision to not raise Dell's offer was made because the company felt it wouldn't make its money back on the deal at a higher price, Asthana said.

"It's not a good use of shareholder money; I'd rather put it in the bank then spend that money and not get it back," he said.

Whether HP overpaid to acquire 3Par remains to be seen. The concept of the winner's curse -- the economic equivalent of a Phyrric victory -- describes the possible outcome when a company wins an auction or bidding war to acquire an asset. By offering to pay the highest price for 3Par, HP valued the company higher than Dell or other potential buyers but risked overpaying for the company.

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