EMC on Monday moved to head off NetApp's proposed acquisition of data de-duplication vendor Data Domain, offering about US$1.8 billion compared with NetApp's May 20 bid of $1.5 billion.
The dominant storage vendor plans to combine Data Domain's data de-duplication technology with its own to tap into the growing market for data de-duplication, an archiving technology that eliminates duplicate bits of information to use storage capacity more efficiently.
EMC proposed offering $30 per share from its existing cash reserves for Data Domain. It would run the acquired company as a division of EMC and increase research and development investment, EMC Chairman, President and CEO Joe Tucci said on a conference call to discuss the offer.
"This acquisition is all about accelerating growth," Tucci said.