Done deal: HPE completes Nimble acquisition
Hewlett Packard Enterprise's US$1 billion acquisition of Nimble Storage has completed, enabling the vendor to push further into the high-growth flash storage market.
Antonio Neri, HPE EVP and general manager, enterprise group, says the deal, in combination with the company's recent acquisitions, helps deliver on its vision of making hybrid IT simple for customers.
"Through these strategic investments, we are continuing to strengthen and deepen our portfolio of next generation, software defined, differentiated solutions that meet the new challenges our customers are facing," Neri says.
The deal provides HPE with a stronger foothold in the high growth flash storage market.
The flash market was worth around US$16 billion last year, according to IDC which has forecast the market to hit US$20 billion come 2020, with the all-flash segment growing at nearly 17% CAGR.
IDC says the Nimble acquisition brings several key technologies and processes to HPE, including a broad set of highly flash-optimised enterprise arrays that offer strong value for midmarket and SMB customers and the InfoSight cloud-based predictive analytics telemetrics platform.
Nimble's predictive flash offerings for the entry to midrange segments are complementary to HPE's scalable midrange to hig-end 3PAR solutions and MSA offerings – and its SimpliVity offerings, with the deal enabling HPE to deliver a full range of flash storage solutions for customers across all segments of the market.
HPE says the deal will also accelerate Nimble's growth by bringing together complementary product portfolios and leveraging HPE's go to market capability, partner ecosystem and server platform.
The completion of the merger, which IDC dubbed 'a home run' and 'a bold strategic move on HPE's part that will benefit HPE and Nimble customers alike', sees Nimble become a wholly owned subsidiary of HPE.
Completion of the deal comes just over a month after the acquisition was first announced, with Meg Whitman, HPE president and chief executive, saying at the time that the company was focused on 'high-growth and higher-margin segments of the market'.
HPE paid $12.50 per share in cash – representing a net cash purchase price of $1.0 billion at closing – with a further $200 million paid out, or assumed, for Nimble's unvested equity awards.
Earlier this year the company closed its US$650 million acquisition of hyperconverged infrastructure vendor SimpliVity, with the first combined offerings from that acquisition due next month.
