For nearly a year, cloud computing and big data software company EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) was engaged in merger discussion with Hewlett-Packard Co., according to a report by the financial publication Wall Street Journal.
Citing sources familiar to the issue, the WSJ said the talks have “recently ended” but it is still unclear if the discussions will be revived as EMC continues to weigh its options as the retirement of its long-time chief executive Joseph Tucci looms. Tucci, who has been at the helm of EMC since 2001, has earlier said he intends to step down by 2015 although he has not yet named a successor.
Based in Hopkins, Mass, EMC is a data storage systems pioneer which has grown moved into three main business areas. The company now includes EMC International which occupies the company’s traditional data storage market; VMware Inc., the virtualization software leader of which EMC owns an 80 per cent stake in; and Pivotal which engages in software development.
Together, HP (NYSE: HPQ) and EMC would have a combined market value of $13 billion. However, talks between the two companies broke down a few weeks ago over fears that shareholders of both EMC and HP would reject the deal.
Industry analysts have also named Cisco Systems Inc. and Oracle Corp as potential partners for EMC and WSJ also reported that EMC has recently spoken with Dell Inc.