HP Enterprise Inks Data Management Takeover At Steep Discount

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has just announced its latest acquisition, and it comes at a discount for the tech firm.

Reports Wednesday (Jan. 18) said HPE has acquired SimpliVity, a company that develops hyper-converged infrastructure, which uses a variety of data technologies — storage, networking and computing — to more efficiently run software.

The takeover was inked for $650 million in cash, reports said — a hefty cut from SimpliVity’s valuation at $1 billion when it raised $175 million from investors in March 2015. It’s an even steeper discount than the $3.9 billion HPE was rumored to be willing to pay for the company several months ago, reports added.

“This transaction expands HPE’s software-defined capability and fits squarely within our strategy to make Hybrid IT simple for customers,” stated the tech conglomerate’s CEO, Meg Whitman. “More and more customers are looking for solutions that bring them secure, highly resilient, on-premises infrastructure at cloud economics. That’s exactly where we’re focused.”

In another statement, Antonio Nero, executive vice president and general manager at HPE’s Enterprise Group, focused on the financial impact of the acquisition.

“HPE will bring together its best-in-class infrastructure, automation and cloud management software with SimpliVity’s industry-leading, software-defined data management platform to deliver the industry’s only ‘built-for-enterprise’ hyper-converged offering,” he said. “And the combined best-in-class technology will be backed by HPE’s leading financial services and go-to-market resources.”

The takeover follows HPE’s announcement last month that it will collaborate with Microsoft to push for hybrid cloud technology adoption in the enterprise. Together, the technology giants will aim to streamline and reduce friction of hybrid IT tools — solutions that are in-house and based in the cloud — for corporate customers.

Last year, reports surfaced that HPE is looking to divest its software unit, seeking up to $10 billion for a sale. Those reports, however, are unconfirmed.