EMC, one of the largest manufacturers of data storage products which has a major presence in the Triangle area, is mulling merger and other options, according to The Wall Street Journal. A UK tech news site says a merger with HP with Meg Whitman leading the combined company is a possibility.
“EMC Weighs Merger, Other Options,” reads the headline in Monday’s Wall Street Journal. “Pressed by Activist and With CEO Expected to Retire, Data-Storage Giant Reaches Crossroad”
“Data-storage giant EMC Corp., under pressure from a shareholder activist and faced with the expected retirement of its longtime chief executive, is considering options that could include a merger deal with a rival, according to people familiar with the matter,” the paper said.
Sources were not named.
According to the report, EMC has been talking with Hewlett-Packard about a possible deal but talks “recently ended.”
Dell, Cisco and Oracle are also listed as possibilities.
Cisco and Oracle each have a major presence in RTP.
U.K. tech news sight The Register speculates that EMC is talking deal because EMC “activist investor” Elliott Management who apparently wants “VMware [owned by EMC} sold off and money returned to shareholders.”
The Register notes that the HP deal is said to have been “a merger of equals with a stock transaction, with Meg Whitman as HP/EMC CEO and Joe Tucci as chairman. But these talks have finished with no positive outcome.”
EMC operates a manufacturing center in the Triangle as well as a research and development operation.
