After many days of matching each other's bids, HP and Dell have finally finished the race to acquire 3PAR, a supplier of virtualized storage technologies, and it appears that HP has already entered a definitive merger agreement, the transaction having already been approved by both sides.

Dell has been matching HP's every bid for a while, but the latter finally managed to drive it out of the competition by offering 3PAR $33 in cash per share.

This translates into a total sum of $2.35 billion, in exchange for which 3PAR will hand over its services and virtualized storage expertise.

Following this agreement, the one about to be acquired paid Dell the $72 million termination fee, as this was the condition for terminating their merger agreement.

"HP and 3PAR is a winning combination that will accelerate HP's Converged Infrastructure strategy and bolster our ability to provide customers with the industry's highest levels of performance, efficiency and reliability," said Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, HP.

"We intend to invest in 3PAR's technology to create long-term value for our stakeholders," he added.

“As part of HP, 3PAR’s agile, efficient storage solutions will truly thrive, particularly given HP’s ability to accelerate investment in our products and reach new customers around the world,” said David Scott, president and chief executive officer, 3PAR.

“3PAR has built a reputation for delivering enterprises and cloud computing service providers the ability to do more with less,” he went on to saying.

“HP’s global reach, strong routes to market and our shared culture of innovation will allow even more organizations to experience the transformative value of 3PAR’s technology,” Mr. David Scott concluded.

The merger is set to close before the end of 2010 and will increase the resources of HP's Converged Infrastructure Strategy.