Michael Dell Thinks HP Paid "Way Too Much" for 3Par

Michael Dell is still thinking about the one that got away. In comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, today, Dell told Bloomberg he thinks rival Hewlett-Packard ended up paying “way too much” for storage company 3Par.

Funny how that works. It was Dell himself, after all, who had a big hand in pushing the price as high as it went. 3Par, you’ll remember, was the subject of an epic three-week bidding battle between Dell and HP. When it was over, HP took home the prize, shelling out $2.4 billion for 3Par.

The deal kicked off a flurry of acquisitions in enterprise storage. IBM went on to pick up Netezza, and EMC bought Isilon Systems in November. Dell ultimately did make a deal in the storage space, dropping $960 million for Compellent in December.

At Davos, Dell proceeded to pat his eponymous company on the back for its “discipline” by not raising the bidding price for 3Par even higher. He also said he’s looking to do more acquisitions aimed at data centers and cloud computing.

It didn’t take long for HP to answer: Chairman Ray Lane, fresh off the shake-up that rocked the company’s board last week, told Bloomberg in a separate interview that Dell had been willing to pay “almost what we paid” for 3Par. He does have a point.