Top 10 Storage Acquisition Targets

By Christine Cignoli

For many of today's industry heavyweights – companies like HP (NYSE: HPQ), IBM, Dell (NASDAQ: Dell) and EMC (NYSE: EMC) – further growth will come through acquisition. "Not a whole lot of innovation comes from these big companies anymore," said Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst at the Taneja Group. "The vast majority of really cool stuff comes from the small companies. That keeps the innovation fires burning."

It's a tough market, though. The high-stakes 3PAR (NYSE: PAR) sale may be leading others in the storage neighborhood to overvalue their own properties. "The general impression is that this has got to mean that all remaining independent array vendors are going to be lifted up," said Taneja. "Nothing could be further from the truth." 3PAR probably had the best virtualized architecture in the industry, he said.

There have been more than a dozen high profile storage acquisitions this year and speculation about the next acquisition target abounds. These top 10 companies – array vendors and others in the storage arena – likely look the best to potential buyers, according to industry experts.

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