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BlueArc in July filed forms with the SEC related to plans to do an IPO, but those plans have now been withdrawn, Xu said.
DeMont said that HDS's decision now to acquire BlueArc was not related to either the IPO or to the possibility that other vendors are interested in acquiring the company. Instead, he said, the timing is right for the two.
"We have had communications about investing more in BlueArc," he said. "The timing is now right. We have dramatically increased our market and our channels. We believe the relationship is mature and successful. BlueArc's management team felt their only inhibition to growth was the resources needed to invest in its business. They felt the best way to go forward was to leverage Hitachi's resources."
Kadlec said the current move by several major storage vendors to acquire smaller vendors had to have played some role in HDS's move to acquire BlueArc. He cited Dell's recent acquisition of Compellent and EMC's recent acquisition of Isilon as examples of the merger trend.
"I'm sure that when BlueArc started planning for an IPO, someone else might have come in to take a look," he said. "BlueArc had a competitive advantage from a performance aspect."
DeMont said that BlueArc's application for an IPO came as the company was looking at all alternatives for growth, and that he would assume there were other companies interested in the company based on all the recent merger and acquisition activities in the market.
"We see a lot of IT companies with strong cash positions," he said. "But because of our OEM relationship, BlueArc was restricted on the amount of disclosure it could give to a handful of potential buyers."
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