US computer giant Dell said today that it is buying Quest Software for about $2.36 billion.
The news ends recent speculation about who the unnamed bidder was in the battle for the company with investment firm Insight Venture Partners.
With consumer demand for personal computers declining, Dell wants to branch out beyond the business of making personal computers into more lucrative fields.
Helped by a recent string of acquisitions of software companies, Dell is trying to grow into advising corporations and governments on how to manage technology needs and selling them more software and computing equipment.
Dell said Quest would make it more competitive in the server, storage, networking and computing services business. Quest's technology would add to its security and data protections offerings, along with other services aimed at business customers, it added.
Quest Software had agreed to be bought by Insight for $23 per share, or $2 billion, in March, and a series of increasing bids from Insight and another bidder followed.
The March bid was a 19% premium to the company's closing stock price the day before the deal was announced. Dell's $28 per share offer announced today is a 44% premium to Quest's ending price of $19.40 from March 8. The deal is expected to close in Dell's August-October quarter
Both boards have approved the deal, but Quest shareholders must still vote it through. Quest chief executive Vinny Smith, who has a 34% stake in Quest, had agreed to support Insight's offer in March.
In a statement today, he said that with the Dell deal, Quest's products and workforce would be the "foundation" for Dell's software business. Quest helps companies manage databases and provides other corporate IT services.
