Revenue in the three months ended in June rose almost 600% to $71.7 million, yielding EPS of 15 cents per share. Analysts on average were modeling $70.6 million and 14 cents a share.

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The 46-year-old has been acquiring high-end technologies—such as storage and security systems—that Dell can sell to businesses to lessen its reliance on selling low-margin desktop and laptop computers.

Dell bought services provider Perot Systems Corp. for $3.9 billion in 2009. Last year, it lost a high-profile bidding war for 3PAR to rival Hewlett-Packard Co. but later scooped up another data-storage company, Compellent Technologies Inc., for $960 million.

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The software sold by Nexenta Systems of Mountain View, Calif., builds on a trend the industry calls “virtualization,” a broad term for pooling computing resources across physical hardware to make the gear more efficient. Virtualization is a key technology for companies that sell computing services over the Internet to business customers, a growing market known as “cloud computing.”

Nexenta’s software virtualizes data-storage systems but with a twist: the software can run on basic server systems from any hardware vendor. That makes the start-up a competitor to both storage behemoths such as EMC, which sells hardware-software systems, and providers of on-demand computing resources such as Amazon, Nexenta executives said. Amazon, the 800-pound gorilla in cloud computing, uses storage software it built in house to maximize the capacity of its gear, they said.

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Slootman had helmed Data Domain from its founding in 2001 through its public offering in 2007 and sold it to EMC for $2.4 billion in 2009 following a bidding war with NetApp.

Data Domain’s claim to fame is a technology called deduplication that allowed hard drives to get competitive with tape systems for backup. When making daily backups if only 2 percent of your data has changed why back up the other 98 percent every day? The amount of data you have to manage quickly explodes, and the only way to manage it in a cost-effective manner was to use tape systems. Data Domain changed that. “We neutralized the cost advantage that tape had and tore down the tape storage business in the process,” Slootman told me.

Data Domain was one of the early targets in the string of enterprise storage deals that included the bidding war between Dell and Hewlett-Packard over 3Par, and another EMC deal for Isilon. After EMC closed its deal for Data Domain, Slootman stayed on for 18 months in order to help with the transition.

And though Greylock is best known for its investments in two giants of social networking LinkedIn and Facebook, Slootman said he’s joining to “bring more firepower” to its enterprise team. “There’s basically two activities in venture capital these days, enterprise and consumer,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunities in data center storage and infrastructure technologies, networking, virtualization, enterprise apps. Basically stuff that gets sold to companies,” he said.

He says he’ll be on the lookout for companies that can repeat the what Data Domain did: Tear down an industry. “There’s only so much money in the world or in an industry. People are not going to spend net incremental money unless you can reduce their spending somewhere else,” he told me. “Your game is to move the money from point A to point B. You’re looking for wholesale replacement of things that people are already doing, but doing it better, cheaper or faster.”

Cloud computing presents an interesting opportunity he says. Unlike the pre-cloud days with applications were tied to specific hardware, cloud-based services tend to require that everything in the data center be standardized. Getting all that gear to run efficiently requires virtualization — essentially allowing one machine to act like many. Virtualization makes it easy and efficient to get services up and running without a lot of hassle, but also to shut things down easily when they’re not needed. “Big companies are looking for ways to pay by the drink. They want to be able to scale up and down.”

Greylock’s most recent enterprise investments was a $6.3 million stake in Proferi, a cloud based enterprise performance management firm that’s still in stealth mode. Andreessen Horowitz and Peoplesoft founder Dave Duffield also participated in that round. Others include Pure Storage, another company in stealth mode, and Cloudera. All three were led by Aneel Bhusri, who was an early investor in Data Domain and served as its chairman.

It’s the latest move in the roll-up of storage companies by larger IT providers. The wrestling match over 3Par had driven up Compellent’s share price, and prior deals by IBM for Netezza and EMC’s grab of Isilon Systems added fuel to the fire. Something tells me it won’t be the last.

Here’s the press release:

Dell to Acquire Compellent

* Fast-Growing Compellent Technologies, Inc. Provides an Intelligent, Powerful and Easy to Use Virtualized Storage Platform
* Compellent’s Channel Focus Will Further Extend Dell’s PartnerDirect Relationships, Offering New Set of Storage Products to All Members
* Transaction Expected to Be Accretive to Dell Non-GAAP Earnings in Its Fiscal Year 2012
ROUND ROCK, Texas & EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Dell (NASDAQ:DELL – News) and Compellent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:CML – News) today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for Dell to acquire Compellent, a rapidly growing provider of highly-virtualized storage solutions with automated data management features, including tiering and thin provisioning, for enterprise and cloud-computing environments. The acquisition is the latest strategic investment by Dell as it expands its portfolio of enterprise-class storage solutions and is consistent with Dell’s strategy to help customers better manage data growth, reduce storage costs and dramatically simplify the management of IT infrastructure.

The acquisition of Compellent will deliver on Dell’s commitment to provide its customers solutions that are open, capable and affordable. Dell delivers an open and integrated approach to data management that drives efficiency and dramatically reduces costs by streamlining operations.

Upon closing the transaction, Dell will quickly make Compellent an integral part of its industry-leading storage portfolio, including PowerVault, EqualLogic and Dell/EMC. Compellent expands Dell’s award-winning storage solutions, which now offers customers innovative systems and choice at every storage tier, from direct-attach to highly-virtualized SANs.

Dell also plans to keep Compellent’s existing operations in Eden Prairie, Minn., and will invest in engineering, support, operations and sales capability to grow this business.

Compellent sells its solutions through an extensive network of channel partners. Dell plans to maintain and enhance the strong channel program that Compellent has developed. Dell also signed a reseller agreement with Compellent that extends the storage portfolio it can offer its worldwide customer base, effective immediately.

Quotes

“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.”

“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.”

Terms and Closing

Under terms of the agreement, approved by the boards of directors of both companies, Dell will pay $27.75 per share in cash for each share of Compellent for a total equity value of approximately $960 million, and aggregate purchase price of approximately $820 million, net of Compellent’s cash. The transaction, which is subject to approval by Compellent’s shareholders and customary closing conditions, is expected to close in early 2011.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL – News) listens to customers and delivers worldwide innovative technology, business solutions and services they trust and value. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

About Compellent

Compellent Technologies (NYSE:CML – News) provides Fluid Data storage solutions that automate the movement and management of data at a granular level, enabling organizations to constantly adapt to change, slash costs and secure information against downtime and disaster. This patented, built-in storage intelligence delivers significant efficiency, scalability and flexibility. With an all-channel sales network in 35 countries, Compellent is one of the fastest growing enterprise storage companies in the world. For more information and news, visit www.compellent.com and www.compellent.com/news.

One who is willing is Credit Suisse, though it won’t say much. The $50 billion Swiss bank says it is adding Fusion-io’s memory – dubbed ioMemory – into its Advanced Execution Services trading platform.

So what does ioMemory do? It uses flash memory – not terribly unlike what’s used in USB drive – to basically re-write the rules of how companies with large database storage needs can work. Add an ioMemory card to a typical server with a five-figure price tag, and it can suddenly behave a lot more like a much larger and more expensive storage area network. The company is also known for its chief scientist, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Credit Suisse says in this case the ioMemory will be used to speed up algorithmic trading, which is using powerful, super-fast computers to analyze and movements in the prices of stocks, bonds and other securities, and determining when to buy and sell, based on a pre-programmed set of rules and conditions. It’s a business where, as The Wall Street Journal’s Donna Kardos Yeslavich wrote in October, milliseconds count, so banks and other financial institutions are constantly on the lookout anything that can speed the process up. (Eventually we’ll be saying femtoseconds count?)

A key bottleneck is the matter of recording trades made. This means getting the data related to the trade out of a computer’s active memory – that would be the DRAM chips similar to the what occasionally have to upgrade your PC – and permanently stored. DRAM is volatile memory, meaning that if it loses power, it loses whatever it’s storing at that moment. Flash is non-volatile, meaning it stores data permanently, even losing power, until it’s deleted. That makes it great for permanent storage that’s also a lot faster than a hard drive. The faster trades get logged, the more trades get done, the more money gets made. “It’s a matter of quickly putting the trade data in a place where it won’t get lost,” Fusion-io’s CEO David Flynn told me. “You have to make sure that your system won’t forget what’s been done, while at the same time doesn’t look track of what it’s doing.”

Credit Suisse didn’t make anyone available for an interview. Banks rarely go into even this level of public detail about the technology they use. However I did talk to Fusion-io CEO David Flynn, who tells me that Credit Suisse has been a fan of the Fusion-io technology for some time. He also says several other financial institutions are using it. “Its easier for them to use it than it is for them to talk about it,” he said.

From the looks of the investments and partners that Fusion-io has landed during the last year, he’s not kidding. In April it landed $45 million in a series C round led by Meritech Capital Partners, with Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, and Triangle Peak Partners also invested. South Korean electronics giant Samsung, which happens to be the world’s largest manufacturer of flash memory made a strategic investment last year, as did Dell Ventures. Meanwhile Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell all offer Fusion-io technology as an option on its servers. Headcount has doubled in the last year from 150 to between 300 and 400, Flynn told me.

So with all this going on, is Fusion-io going to be a hot IPO or acquisition target in 2011? Don’t count on it, Flynn says. “Our VCs are willing to wait for the home-run,” he said. “And we’re not in the business of getting acquired. We have the luxury of being able to grow this company without someone with itchy fingers.”

For EMC, the acquisition of Isilon gives it a stake in the network-attached storage space, a fast-growing market for “big data” storage (think movie studio catalogs and gene sequencing information) currently dominated by the likes of NetApp and the site of some other big acquisitions this year–Hewlett-Packard’s purchase of 3Par for $2.4 billion, for example. “The unmistakable waves of cloud computing and ‘big data’ are upon us,” EMC CEO Joe Tucci said in a statement. “Customers are looking for new ways to store, protect, secure and add intelligence to the vast amounts of information they will accumulate over the next decade.”

The Netezza deal underscored a key trend: Small companies with the valued know-how for storing and quickly analyzing data are finding themselves drawing attention from the biggest names in technology.

In fact, the attention is so intense that Netezza’s stock was trading roughly a buck higher than IBM’s (IBM) $27-a-share offer by Monday afternoon–suggesting that some investors believed another bidding war would erupt.

Last month’s battle between Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Dell Inc. (DELL) for 3Par (PAR) resulted in a deal that more than tripled the market value of the small data-storage provider.

Meanwhile, the enthusiasm for data storage continued to spread to other players widely considered to rank among the top acquisition candidates.

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Doubtlessly, in some business tome to come, it will all be depicted in glorious detail.

And here are three real-life scenes where BoomTown would desperately have loved to be a fly on the wall:

First: The boardroom perusal of the contents of the eight-page letter from former Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) outside contractor Jodie Fisher, sent to former CEO Mark Hurd, which set in motion the circumstances of his ouster–including the odd investigation into that personal relationship that only managed to turn up dicey expense reports.

Second: The welcome-to-the company-and-screw-HP pep talk that Oracle (ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison delivered to Hurd in appointing him co-president and also a director of the database giant.

And third: The furious HP board racing to the door to file a lawsuit against Hurd for the move.

What happens next should be interesting, especially since the idea of settlement has never been one of the tools in Ellison’s wheelhouse, who is doubtlessly egging Hurd on here.

And, after yet another curveball thrown up by Hurd, it is probably not what HP’s board is angling for either.

But perhaps–after all this mishegas–it is precisely what the tech giant should do, focusing instead on finding a new leader to compete with challenges from companies, such as, well…Oracle.

As it was obligated to do, the lawsuit that HP has filed runs through all the typical charges in cases such as this–almost all of which center on the use of confidential information and how Hurd was paid off not to do exactly what he has done.

It certainly is a lot of money–estimated to be about $35 million, depending on HP’s stock price–and hinges on a two-year confidentiality agreement Hurd agreed to.

HP is correctly avoiding any noncompete language, since California–the state where both Oracle and HP are based–shoots holes in those kinds of defenses.

Instead, as it noted in its lawsuit, HP alleges that Hurd “cannot perform his job at Oracle without disclosing or utilizing HP’s trade secrets and confidential information.”

Of course he cannot, but this should not keep HP’s board from settling, as much as it will pain it to do.

Such a move could not have been helped by Ellison’s typically outrageous remarks about how HP treated Hurd, calling the break between them “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”

And then yesterday’s statement by Ellison: “By filing this vindictive lawsuit against Oracle and Mark Hurd, the HP board is acting with utter disregard for that partnership, our joint customers, and their own shareholders and employees. The HP Board is making it virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to cooperate and work together in the IT marketplace.”

Of course, that’s just the kind of let’s-go-to-the-mattresses noise that HP needs to ignore, now that the longtime partners are clear rivals after Oracle’s $7.4 billion acquisition of computer maker Sun Microsystems.

This purchase put Oracle directly into the server and data-storage-systems business for the first time.

That’s the real reality for HP–and not the delicious “Real Housewives of Silicon Valley” reality show this has turned into.

And–as much as I would like to see Ellison upending a table onto HP board member Marc Andreessen–no amount of legal and public wrangling with Hurd is going to change that.

If it could not work with him any longer–a corporate psychodrama about which there is still much unsaid–HP needs to move on.

Of course, Hurd should not get off for manipulating the bad situation so deftly either, and perhaps should offer to return some, if not all, of the severance paid for his silence.

Or, it could all just come out in open court and give the world a glimpse into all the twisty machinations that got us here.

Which, as you might imagine, is just fine by me–although not so much for the shareholders of HP.

One month after resigning his position at Hewlett-Packard amid allegations of business-standard improprieties, ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd has a new gig: Co-president of Oracle.

Ending a long weekend’s worth of speculation, Oracle on Monday said Hurd will serve as co-president alongside Safra Catz, taking up a role vacated by current president and fellow scandal cultivator Charles Phillips, who has evidently resigned.

“Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do even better at Oracle,” Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said in statement. “There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark.”

Indeed, Hurd’s knowledge of HP’s (HPQ) server and data-storage-systems business will undoubtedly come in handy at Oracle (ORCL), which has been aggressively moving into that very space ever since its acquisition of Sun. In that sense, Hurd’s hiring is a real coup for Oracle. Who better to put the screws to a rival than a former CEO with a bone to pick?

Perhaps that’s what Larry Ellison was thinking when he spanked HP for canning Hurd. “The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs  many years ago,” he said at the time. “That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn’t come back and saved them.”

Hewlett-Packard increased its bid for data storage vendor 3Par to $30 a share this morning–about 90 minutes after Dell matched its previous offer of $27. HP’s (HPQ) latest play for 3Par (PAR) values it at $2 billion, an 11 percent premium over Dell’s $1.8 billion offer, which 3Par accepted shortly after it was made.

Fascinating. Recall that this all began with a $1.15 billion, $18-per-share deal between Dell and 3Par in mid-August. Six bids later, we’re at $30-per-share and $2 billion. Meanwhile, at $31.44, 3Par’s stock is up well over 20 percent this morning. This bidding war may well go another round or two.

Said Jayson Noland of investment firm Robert W. Baird, “The valuation is so extreme now, there’s not really a benchmark where you can say, ‘OK, they’re going to stop here.’ ”

HP Announces Revised Proposal to Acquire 3PAR for $30 per Share in Cash

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug 27, 2010 — HP (HPQ 38.10, -0.12, -0.31%) today announced that it has increased its proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of 3PAR Inc. (PAR 31.57, +5.54, +21.28%) to $30 per share in cash, or an enterprise value of $2.0 billion. The proposal represents an 11 percent premium above the most recent price offered by Dell Inc. of $27 per share. HP’s proposal is not subject to any financing contingency and has been approved by HP’s board of directors. Once approved by 3PAR’s board, HP expects the transaction to close by the end of the calendar year.

PREVIOUSLY

• HP Raises 3Par Bid to $27 Per Share
• After Harried Sofa-Cushion Search, Dell Outbids HP for 3Par
• Dell Has Three Days to Top HP’s 3Par Bid
• Dell Prepping Higher Bid for 3Par
• HP, Dell in Bidding War for 3Par
• Dell Buys 3Par for $1.15 Billion

3Par’s (PAR) share price on August 15, the day before Dell’s offer became public? $9.65.

Given the abrupt increase in the company’s share price Monday, it seems clear that investors feel this particular bidding war has only just begun, and Dell (DELL) will parry Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) offer with an even richer one. And, according to Bloomberg, they’re right. Sources familiar with the matter tell the publication Dell is indeed drawing up a sweetened offer for 3Par, though analysts question whether the company can even come up with the shock-and-awe-size number that it will take to knock HP out of the running. “HP is going to win,” Wedbush Securities analyst Kaushik Roy told Bloomberg. “Dell just doesn’t have that ammunition. HP has the balance sheet to buy anything…. At this point, the amount of premium these guys are paying is insane.”

Dell’s new offer is expected in the coming days.

In 1999, Paul Flanagan became one of the early employees at StorageNetworks Inc., a company that rented and managed data storage equipment so its customers wouldn’t have to buy their own. The company was an immediate hit, reaching $123 million in annual sales in its third year of business.

But StorageNetworks ultimately fell into bankruptcy because the technology that would let it add more customers without spending too much capital on the back-end just wasn’t there yet. “When I wrote the financial model for StorageNetworks, the worst part [of the business model was] owning all the back-end infrastructure,” recalled Flanagan, who later became the company’s chief executive.

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For the past 15 years or so, most of the action has been in packing hundreds or thousands of PC-style microprocessors into supercomputers called clusters. More recently, some researchers have been trying to boost performance further by adding graphics chips, which each have hundreds of specialized processors. A system from China, for example, this month took the No. 2 spot on a semiannual ranking of the 500 largest systems–historically dominated by supercomputers in North America–by using a combination of Intel (INTC) microprocessors and Nvidia (NVDA) graphics chips.

But it doesn’t make sense to have ultra-speedy calculating engines if they have to wait around for the equivalent of fuel–the data they need solve problems. So engineers also keep trying to design faster connections between microprocessors, and to connect them with chips called DRAMs (dynamic random access memories) that serve as a temporary scratch pad for data and the disk drives that provides longer-term storage for information.

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The creation–whose name combines memory and resistor–was postulated in 1971 by a professor named Leon Chua and turned into working prototypes by H-P in 2008. Among other things, memristors are expected to store data in a much smaller space than conventional transistors. That’s a big deal, because experts believe that it will eventually become impossible to keep shrinking transistors in chips such as flash memory to keep improving the storage capacity of those products.

Nearly all of the discussion about memristors so far, in fact, has focused on their use data storage.

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Which is exactly what Data Domain did.

One consolation: NetApp (NTAP) may have failed as a suitor, but it received a $57 million breakup fee from Data Domain (DDUP) as a result of the termination of the agreement.

Still, it’s a tough blow for NetApp (NTAP), which will now focus on “existing growth opportunities” instead of ill-starred bidding wars with rivals.

Said Dan Warmenhoven, NetApp’s chairman and CEO: “While NetApp’s acquisition of Data Domain would have produced benefits for customers and employees and complemented NetApp’s existing growth trajectory, we remain highly confident in our already compelling strategic plan, market opportunities, and competitive strengths.”

“NetApp applies a disciplined approach to acquisitions, one focused intently on creating long-term value for our stockholders.” Warmerhoven added. “We therefore cannot justify engaging in an increasingly expensive and dilutive bidding war that would diminish the deal’s strategic and financial benefits. NetApp has established leadership positions in virtualized infrastructure, storage efficiency, and unified storage, even in these difficult economic times, by helping customers meet their business objectives with less physical storage while reducing costs. That commitment will not change. We look forward to continuing to build on our foundation of innovation and customer service, and to continuing to execute our successful growth strategy.”

[Image credit: despair.com]

BoomTown has had some good leaked internal memos from Yahoo, but I have never enjoyed one quite as much as this one from newly installed Yahoo PR head Eric Brown, who started today.

While it is clear that Yahoo (YHOO) has had its troubles in understanding and offering social-networking products to its users, Brown certainly knows how to share.

Yahoo could use some of that DNA!

New Yahoo CMO Elisa Steele named Brown, a colleague from her former job at NetApp (NTAP), as SVP of global communications at the Internet giant in June.

He was the VP of corporate relations at the data storage company, on whose board Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has also served. Before that, he was at Adaptec (ADPT).

Brown is filling a slot left when former Yahoo PR head Jill Nash left Yahoo in February. She was briefly replaced by her deputy, Brad Williams, who was laid off from Yahoo in a recent round of cuts.

Like Steele, he is yet another executive from the business software arena to be hired under Bartz, who also comes from that background. Bartz also hired Jeff Russakow from Symantec (SYMC), which makes antivirus software and other security, for the post of Customer Advocacy SVP.

Yahoo’s whole marketing organization is undergoing a rejiggering under Steele, including a major brand overhaul. Along with Brown, she also recently hired Penny Baldwin as SVP of global integrated marketing and brand management.

Brown will be taking on Yahoo’s image-making, a task that has been a challenge over the last two years as the Silicon Valley icon has been buffeted by a series of external and internal challenges.

But Bartz has publicly talked about the need to now focus attention on Yahoo’s many assets and strengths.

In fact, in an onstage interview with me at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference in late May, Bartz said: “The best way to change the perception is to do a good job and then talk about it.”

From this memo, Brown seems like he knows how to do that.

And since he likes writers Kate Chopin and David Sedaris at the same time, it is obvious that Brown and I are on the path to become besties.

(Potential deal-breaker: I like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain.)

Here’s the memo–based on a form that sources tell me all Yahoo PR folks fill out in a getting-to-know-you questionnaire, but don’t make public–in which Brown says hello to his new team:

From: Eric Brown (SVP Global Communications)
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 6:00 PM
Subject: It’s great to be here!

Global comms team,

Thank you so much for the wonderful intro materials you gave me. I’m going to spend quite a bit of time on the org charts, budgets, plans, and results package you compiled for me. But I’ve been especially thrilled with the personal profiles you sent my way. I’ve seen other people whose phobias are the same as mine: spiders and heights; enjoyed how many of you put Paris as your favorite place on Earth; and am impressed with how many amazing books this group has collectively read.

I must also admit to being slightly intimidated by all of you who put “bad grammar” as a pet peeve and will triple check this email to avoid any grammar infractions…

I know I have a Thursday group meeting with you, but thought the least I could do on day one is return the favor and complete my own handbook profile. So here goes…

Date I joined Yahoo!: today (6 July 2009), though I did spend two days at the senior leaders meeting in mid-June and thank all of you who were there for the warm welcome in Half Moon Bay.

What I do here: lead a team of amazing, intelligent, motivated people who put Yahoo! in the best light possible and tell our story in compelling ways that make users and advertisers around the world want to embrace Yahoo! heartily.

Where I grew up: Warsaw, Virginia–a tiny town about 90 minutes from Richmond, Virginia and 150 minutes from Washington, D.C. For those of you who are American history buffs, Warsaw is about 10 minutes from the birthplace of Robert E. Lee and 15 minutes from the birthplace of George Washington.

Where I live now: Sunnyvale, California. Can’t beat the commute.

College: William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. BA in English. Loved lit crit. Senior honors thesis was on post-WWII masculinity in American society as represented by the works of Norman Mailer.

My first job: an internship for the U.S. Navy (my parents’ employer—they were civilians) analyzing different process flow diagram software packages for a team creating warship defense systems. For the rest of high school and college, I had LOTS more fun as a waiter at dive restaurant called The Stagecoach. The food was ghastly; the people were amazing.

What I did before Yahoo!: I ran comms (PR, social media, internal comms, and exec comms) for NetApp, managing a global team of about 60+ people doing amazing enterprise and B2B work in 30+ companies worldwide. I’m very excited to learn “consumer” from all of you–and equally excited to share experiences from my almost 20 years in the business in return.

What I do when I’m not here: I love travel (had a super 3 days in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney two weekends ago), cooking (yes, seriously—cooking is very therapeutic and relaxing for me), and reading (though I haven’t picked up a Norman Mailer since my undergrad days).

If the Internet didn’t exist, what I’d be doing right now: teaching literature to high school students. I believe that at some point in my life, I have to return to society what it has given me. And I’d be a better teacher than firefighter or doctor!

Favorite place on Earth: Paris. I try to go there 3 or 4 times a year and have a couple of very close friends who are kind enough to let me crash with them. Second favorite is Hong Kong.

Proudest accomplishment: professionally–being part of the “inner counsel circle” for NetApp execs on a variety of comms and marketing issues (which I hope to be here at Yahoo! as well); personally–being a good friend, partner, and family member.

Favorite Yahoo! moment: there have only been 3 days of them so far—and all have been great. I felt very honored and lucky to be part of the Half Moon Bay leadership summit–and meeting people from all over Yahoo! there was inspiring.

Favorite book: someone who majored in literature can’t just name one, so I’ll split them into categories…Favorite works of literature: The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Favorite work that kindled my imagination: The Hobbit by Tolkien. Favorite works that make me laugh: anything by David Sedaris (the man is wicked funny).

Favorite movie: two–Moulin Rouge and Orlando–both visually stunning.

My first car: a Buick Skyhawk in a horrible shade of brown–the thing was so ratty that I had to add oil to it every other day so it wouldn’t break down–it made its last hurrah on a cross-country trip from Virginia to California and made it over the Rocky Mountains without any issues but then was quite unhappy crossing the Sierra Nevada range.

My next vacation destination: somehow I think I’m going to be very busy for the next few months so I’m not planning any big trips, though I have told a friend I’ll attend his 50th birthday party in Munich and from there I’ll try to drive to Vienna for a few days.

My hidden talent: navigating subway systems when everyone else insists on taking a taxi (the exception: Tokyo–because it is just too darned crowded).

My favorite online video: I like online videos to catch up on things that MTV no longer carries–like videos from Gus Gus (though I only see one of their videos on Yahoo! Music…)

My guiltiest pleasure: ice cream in bed with the Kindle (yes, just as Elisa put in her email)–the ice cream HAS to be Ben & Jerry’s (LOVE being on this floor with the conference room names!) and my favorite is Peach Cobbler.

I have an intense fear of: spiders and heights–I even had a spider vacuum for a while so I didn’t have to come near ‘em or smash ‘em–but then I was scared they’d survive the suction and electric shock and crawl back somewhere–so now they’re routinely smashed.

My biggest pet peeve: beating around the bush–tell me what you want me to know because I’m not telepathic and say it without a lot of metaphor or subtlety–if you really want me to know something, please make it crystal clear.

My best celebrity encounter: dinner with friends in the outdoor section of the Restaurant du Palais Royal in Paris on a gorgeous May evening–next to us was Tom Ford (at the height of his Gucci power)–I have never wanted to NOT eat so much in my life.

Something few people know about me: I abhor cava (sorry to those of you in Spain)–champagne is my favorite drink on Earth, prosecco will do in a pinch, and New World sparklings are hit and miss–but I universally detest cava.

Best for advice for working with me (yes, a little changed from what you all submitted): honesty really IS the best policy–unless I’m having a bad hair day in which case please just don’t say anything about that at all.

Thanks again for having me here–and we’ll speak more on Thursday.

Best regards,
Eric

This morning, EMC raised its offer for Data Domain to $2.1 billion from $1.8 billion, an 11 percent increase over its previous all-cash bid. Data Domain’s board had previously recommended that shareholders reject EMC’s $30-a-share cash bid in favor of a $30 cash-and-stock offer from NetApp (NTAP).

Hard to see the board doing so again now that the EMC (EMC) has sweetened the financial end of its proposal and removed some deal-protection provisions with which Data Domain (DDUP) had taken issue. With those gone, EMC’s bid is clearly superior to NetApp’s, CEO Joe Tucci claims, and it would be hard to argue otherwise.

“Over the past several weeks we’ve received strong support from many Data Domain stockholders and customers, validating our belief that EMC is Data Domain’s best choice,” Tucci wrote in a letter to Data Domain’s leadership. “With regulatory requirements now fulfilled, and in light of the clearly superior proposal we submitted to Data Domain’s Board of Directors today, we expect Data Domain to sign our definitive agreement that will deliver superior value in cash to the Data Domain stockholders in as little as two weeks.”

Data Domain has until midnight on July 17 to accept the offer.

UPDATE: NetApp responded to EMC’s announcement with the following statement:

“In response to EMC’s revised, unsolicited offer, the NetApp Board of Directors will carefully weigh its options, keeping in mind both its fiduciary duty to its stockholders and its disciplined acquisition strategy. We will provide an update shortly.”

This morning, EMC raised its offer for Data Domain to $2.1 billion from $1.8 billion, an 11 percent increase over its previous all-cash bid. Data Domain’s board had previously recommended that shareholders reject EMC’s $30-a-share cash bid in favor of a $30 cash-and-stock offer from NetApp (NTAP).

Hard to see the board doing so again now that the EMC (EMC) has sweetened the financial end of its proposal and removed some deal-protection provisions with which Data Domain (DDUP) had taken issue. With those gone, EMC’s bid is clearly superior to NetApp’s, CEO Joe Tucci claims, and it would be hard to argue otherwise.

“Over the past several weeks we’ve received strong support from many Data Domain stockholders and customers, validating our belief that EMC is Data Domain’s best choice,” Tucci wrote in a letter to Data Domain’s leadership. “With regulatory requirements now fulfilled, and in light of the clearly superior proposal we submitted to Data Domain’s Board of Directors today, we expect Data Domain to sign our definitive agreement that will deliver superior value in cash to the Data Domain stockholders in as little as two weeks.”

Data Domain has until midnight on July 17 to accept the offer.

UPDATE: NetApp responded to EMC’s announcement with the following statement:

“In response to EMC’s revised, unsolicited offer, the NetApp Board of Directors will carefully weigh its options, keeping in mind both its fiduciary duty to its stockholders and its disciplined acquisition strategy. We will provide an update shortly.”