Dell Expands Virtualized Storage Portfolio, Acquires Compellent

Since the holidays are almost upon us, Dell figured it would finish the year with an acquisition, so it approached Compellent and got it to sign an agreement that states it will be integrated into the former along with all its IP.

Compellent is a provider of highly-virtualized storage solutions with automated data management features for enterprise and cloud computing.

This includes tiering and thin provisioning capabilities, among other things, and should allow Dell to better manage data growth and reduce storage costs by simplifying the management of the IT infrastructure.

“We are excited about our merger with Dell. This is the next logical step in our goal to scale our products, channel and team worldwide,” said Phil Soran, President, CEO and Chairman of Compellent.

“With Dell’s scale and technology leadership, we accelerate the adoption of our virtualized platform, Fluid Data, to redefine the value of enterprise storage for data centers and cloud computing,” he added.

Dell will pay $27.75 per share in cash for each Compellent share, leading to a total value of about $960 million. The aggregate purchase price will be of roughly $820 million.

The transaction should close in early 2011, right after Compellent's shareholders review and approce the customary closing conditions.

“Compellent is a natural complement to Dell’s expanding enterprise storage portfolio. The Compellent storage platform will enable Dell to provide customers additional mid- and high-end network storage solutions that simplify and reduce the cost of data management,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Enterprise Product Group.

“Compellent’s design focus on intelligently managing data to increase efficiency, agility and resiliency is consistent with Dell’s approach of building solutions that can quickly scale to meet the most demanding enterprise environment.”

Dell will keep Compellent's operations in Eden Prairie, Minn, and will invest in operations, engineering, support and sales capability.