Dell said Thursday it is in advanced talks with storage vendor Compellent Technologies regarding a merger that would call for Dell to pay US$27.50 per share, or roughly $876 million, for the company.
The companies gave no assurances that a deal will be consummated, and said they do not plan to make additional comments “until an agreement is reached or discussions are terminated.”
Dell’s offer falls significantly below Compellent’s closing share price on Wednesday of $33.65.
The storage market has been heating up of late. Earlier this year, Dell lost a bidding war for storage vendor 3Par to Hewlett-Packard, and last month EMC said it would pay $2.25 billion for Isilon Systems.