It’s all over the industry news – HP will acquire LeftHand Networks for a reported $360 million in cash. The last funding press release I could find was dated September 8, 2005, when Valhalla Partners led a $25 million round, bringing LeftHand’s total funding to $75 million. This is a very nice payday for the boys from Boulder, and I hope everyone benefits from it.
Of course, many were quick to compare this move to Dell’s acquisition of EqualLogic late last year for $1.4 billion, as well as HP’s acquisition of PolyServe. Does the price disparity reflect the relative strength of EqualLogic’s offerings, or is the market to blame? LeftHand has definitely benefited from Dell’s move, which both validated their products and offered a new market of disaffected users. The bigger question is how HP will integrate LeftHand’s software with its own line of storage systems.
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