After a much heated bidding war, Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) has finally managed to cast its net over Quest Software, Inc.(NASDAQ:QSFT). It announced Monday that it would buy Quest Software at a price of $2.4 billion. This move was driven by the fact that Dell was looking to expand its activities beyond its core business of selling PCs.
This $2.4 billion deal will require Dell to pay $28 a share; a price that gives it a lead among competitor bidders like Insight Venture Partners. In fact, the latter was in the process of inking a $23 a share deal with Quest back in March-this was of course before Dell came into the picture and emerged victorious in the heated battle.
A brief inside scoop of the bidding war reveals that Dell offered a price of $25.5 a share in June. This was followed by a brief tag stint of arguing, after Dell finally announced the deal on Monday.
The Quest software deal spreads a bullish aura over Dell. At least this is what John Swainson, President of Dell software group, thinks. “The addition of Quest will enable Dell to deliver more competitive server, storage, networking and end user computing solutions and services to customers,” said Swainson in a statement.
John Swainson also highlights Quest’s distinctive lineaments. The president points out that Quest was equipped with industry-leading software, a talented workforce and above all peerless intellectual property. He further notes that such standout properties were instrumental in giving Dell a good standing in the fastest and largest growing areas of the software industry.
With Dell in one of the most competitive industries, it needs to make decisive moves, before it ends up as a buggy whip company.
