back to article EMC, HP blockbuster 'merger' shocker comes a cropper

EMC has been holding secret merger talks with HP that have since stalled, according to industry sources. The negotiations are said to have lasted almost 12 months, during which Dell executives mulled buying parts of EMC. But at the heart of the discussion was a proposed $132bn merger of the storage giant and HP, according to …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oracle...

    No.. just NOOO!!! please god NO!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oracle...

      Has His Larriness moved aside as part of the acquisition talks???

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Enter Cisco from stage left...

    Next up, Cisco. BOOM!

    1. CheesyTheClown

      Re: Enter Cisco from stage left...

      Maybe, but VMware is Soooo 2012. UCS and Hyper-V is amazing and UCS with OpenStack is getting even more amazing.

      VMware is so spread out that just shrinking their product line to what is useful would be a major problem and Cisco couldn't manage a software company like this.

      EMC products are really just aging and collecting dust. They were interesting back when reliability cost a lot. But their performance is poor and they're just not so impressive anymore. Cisco doesn't need them and invicta already is looking MUCH better. Why would Cisco want to burden themselves with 10 year old rusty SAN tech? A 4U disk drawer with 40 10gig disks for near line is all they need to make invicta rock.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Enter Cisco from stage left...

        Cheesy, your M$ love is showing, as usual.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Enter Cisco from stage left...

        "Cisco doesn't need them and invicta already is looking MUCH better"

        No lover of EMC especially after their subterfuge around XtremIO upgrades, but Invicta ! that would be the half baked storage startup that Cisco bought and are now having to stop shipping due to quality issues ?

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Enter Cisco from stage left...

        "Hyper-V is amazing"

        +1. Not to mention that Hyper-V Server, fully featured version is completely free.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Documentum / Autonomy

    What happens to Documentum if EMC and HP Merge. There isn't an HP product that competes directly with Documentum - their WorkSite MP product is dead in the water, however, HP haven't got a good track record in this space...

  4. Otto is a bear.

    Why, oh Why

    Does the IT industry keep wanting to create these huge monopolistic suppliers. It can only end in tears for the consumers.

    Does no one remember the behaviours of IBM worldwide back in the sixties and seventies. Yes, up sprang DEC, SUN, Compaq, Sequent and others, but where are they now.

    1. Riku

      Re: Why, oh Why

      Yes, they remember perfectly well, particularly the BIG FAT HUMUNGOUS MARGINS from that time.

      As for where are they now - you seem to have forgotten that what were investors in the previous era are now speculators (a polite word for gamblers turning the economy into a get-rich-quick scheme) and none of them give a rat's arse about the longevity of the company (or the consumers), only how much money they can extract before they bleed the company dry, (or the next market crash).

    2. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: Why, oh Why

      Share your concern @Otto. The effect of HP and EMC merging would only narrow customer choice, particularly in the SAN space.

      And an Oracle takeover may pose an interesting "rationalisation" in the virtual machine space.

      I have no enthusiasm for these M&A shenanigans, but then I'm not a shareholder.

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Precedent... Re: Aceleration in the consolidation ?

      The last time somebody made a prediction like that, it was Larry Ellison talking about the ERP and CRM markets.

      And when the markets stubbornly refused to follow his prediction, he made it happen with a series of acquisitions.

      So... precedent?

  6. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is desperation

    HP management can't think about growing by using internal technical talent, they can only think about aquisition and merger - because that's how their rewards are calculated. As many have said in the past, appropriate wiring on Bill n Dave's graves could generate much power. Anon for obvious.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is desperation

      "HP management can't think about growing by using internal technical talent"

      So that'll be why EMC are shopping themselves around then ?

    2. Tom 35

      Re: This is desperation

      "HP management can't think about growing by using internal technical talent,"

      That would be because they fired all their talent to make the stock go up.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: This is desperation

        Well HP is the only major vendor showing growth in storage, but yes of course you're correct it must surely have been the redundancies at HP that caused EMC and Netapp to lose market share.

        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/08/idc_tracks_storage_market_downwards/

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Private

    Dell going private. Good move.

    hp, Cisco, emc all wish they had flexibility. Their number one goal always needs to be shareholder value.

    Shareholder's are Not always customers and there is the rub.

  9. M. B.

    For Cisco...

    ...it's as easy as redirecting emc.com to cisco.com/storage.

    Everyone else will have an overlap nightmare.

    1. CheesyTheClown

      Re: For Cisco...

      Why would Cisco want that flea ridden dog? They finally dumped them... Too bad it was for NetApp, but at least invicta is coming along well now.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: For Cisco...

        "but at least invicta is coming along well now."

        Is it really ? last I saw it was on shipment hold because it doesn't scale as advertised. Cisco and EMC would be a marriage made in heaven, the only product overlap being both have half baked all flash solutions.

  10. Cthugha

    my flabber is totally gasted........

  11. Matt Bryant Silver badge

    VMware a positive or a negative?

    If you're hp or Dell, then VMware could actually be a problem as it upsets your other virtualization partners (M$ and RedHat), and the storage side of EMC alone might not generate enough addition as opposed to overlap for hp. CISCO might have no qualms about VMware given they are highly reliant on it for their UCS offering, and their is almost no storage overlap for them, and it fills a big hole in their lineup. Personally, I think Larry still has too much control at Oracle and too much invested in Pillar to make an Oracle-EMC merger likely, though Hurd is probably already sharpening his axe at the thought.

    But what about some other players? I can't see IBM being ignored by EMC. Could a smaller player like Lenovo or Fujitsu afford it?

    Interesting times....

    1. CheesyTheClown

      Re: VMware a positive or a negative?

      Cisco just made a huge product refresh and it's all about Hyper-V, System Center and OpenStack.

      Cisco doesn't even make new drivers build for UCS VMFEX on VMware anymore.

      I don't think we'll see any love there. Besides EMC doesn't do anything Cisco can't do better with storage.

    2. M. B.

      Re: VMware a positive or a negative?

      Cisco is actually quite big in the Openstack field and uses Inktank on RHEL for storage as it is, so they don't necessarily need VMware at all. They are also ensuring the latest generation of products has full Hyper-V interop as well.

      I am more expecting a Red Hat buy from Cisco though (now that Red Hat owns Inktank), that would have significant results on the quality of their Linux-based work.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tucci is just filling his pockets....

    ..again before he leaves.

    Greedy little man.

  13. The Godfather
    Coat

    Can't grow, so let's mate...even if we're both sterile

    Sad days when consolidation at the top end is the only way to appease shareholders. Market share of shrinking pies and less choice for those below.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Too Funny HP and EMC

    Dust off Dave Donatelli's desk at HP or EMC, hmm, ahh, awkward..

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: AC Re: Too Funny HP and EMC

      I knew a salesgrunts who, when he left Compaq, really burnt his bridges! Fast forward a year and the hp-Compaq 'merger' happened, much axing of overlapping sales teams, and he found himself managing his old Compaq manager. He said he was never happier getting up in the morning for the few weeks it took before his ex-boss left!

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Disclaimer: I work for HP. Much as this might have made 'some' sense a few years ago, I can't see what's in it for HP. EMC have nothing to offer in the array space, StoreOnce is a stronger product than Data Domain so the only real gain would be Isilon which I'd struggle to get excited about being able to sell.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Gartner may well disagree but they're not really the force they were. And they do themselves more damage with every MQ, witness the XtrmIO firmware mess and the fact EMC get a pass for relatively poor product due to market share alone.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      StorOnce better than DataDomain? I work for a competitor of EMC but your suggestion is still laughable.

  16. Mark 85

    ah... time to look at history

    HP will acquire.. Shareholders smile. HP fumbles and can't quite figure out how to sort it out. Shareholders frown. HP starts dumping employees. Shareholders smile. HP dumps the product line into the bin. Shareholders smile. HP starts looking for another company to acquire. Shareholders smile. Rinse, repeat as needed.

  17. BuckRogers

    Truly an elephant no one is willing to eat in one sitting

    The shame of all this is that it's all caused by an arse with access to lots of other peoples money thinking he's spotted a limping gazelle only to find out he might have shot an elephant.

    Anon cause I know a lot of people that are shaking in their boots right now.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Truly an elephant no one is willing to eat in one sitting

      BuckRogers Anon?

  18. Bellost

    This isn't a offensive move... it's defensive

    It's not about making money - it's about cashing out while they still can. Hardware is EVAPORATING and EMC is pushing up product refresh cycles and scrambling in the field to do ANYTHING they can from the onslaught of:

    - Workloads moving to Cloud (SaaS as much as Iaas)

    - Flash CRUSHING their profit machine (VMAX has no use case any more)

    - Software defined type systems turning JBOD and x86 commodity into SAN

    EMC is COOKED. If they don't figure out an exit strategy now they will die a slow and agonizing death over the next few years. Their cash hoard is respectable - but they burn money with their high SG&A model and the market is shifting in multiple ways all at once. They simply can't move quick enough.

  19. luis river

    HP-EMC great coalition

    EMC needs a coalition to remain in the business, the coalition with HP-EMC is great. Joe Tucci negotiate again!!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: HP-EMC great coalition

      But as the poster above said from a product perspective only VMware and maybe isIlon would be of interest, HP have better all round storage products vs EMC's ageing portfolio. I can see the value in the Customer base and maybe some of the IP, but even then it would be a very expensive move given the potential overlap.

      Just maybe It's EMC who want something from HP.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    New to this

    Who's this CheeseyTheClown guy? Is he trolling or just stupid?

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