By Brenon Daly
Since when does an army without having its prime basic go to the attack? That strategy would appear to go towards convention, however Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has completed just that given that dumping Mark Hurd for his foibles. The tech giant has chased a pair of offers to valuations which are basically 2-3 instances the prevailing industry multiple. HP’s recent bidding war over 3PAR (PAR) and the purchase of ArcSight (ARST) shows a level of aggressiveness that indicates to us that the drivers for the acquisitions may have been emotional as well as financial, at least to a small degree.
If we step back and look at the setting for both deals,
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At the risk of drifting too far into psychology, we wonder if the offers weren’t a bit of overcompensation. (Certainly,
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