Report: Dell Back In Quest Software Hunt With $2.32bn Bid

Dell has tabled another bid for Quest Software as it battles with private investment firm Insight Venture Partners for an acquisition, according to a report.

Insight Venture Partners appeared to have settled a deal with Quest last week, after trumping another bid from a strategic bidder. It was believed that Dell was the strategic bidder, offering  $2.15 (£1.38bn) billion.

Now it seems Dell has trumped Insight, upping its offer to $2.32 billion (£1.49bn), a source close to the matter told Reuters. Dell had been linked with an offer for Quest in May too.

Bidding war

Yesterday, Quest confirmed it had received an improved bid of $27.50 (£17.60) per share in cash, but again the name of that suitor was not revealed. Insight now has three days to table a better bid.

Dell would not comment on the matter and has not yet made any public comments on whether it is interested in Quest.

Quest, a data protection and database management provider, had agreed to be bought out by Insight in March, but has reportedly been looking for other bidders.

Dell has been on an acquisition spree over the past few years, as it looks to be the vendor that can provide for all data centre needs, from software and hardware to services.

In March, it announced plans to buy unified threat management (UTM) and next-generation firewall vendor SonicWALL. A month later, it emerged Dell wanted to buy thin client and VDI vendor Wyse Technology.

A purchase of Quest would boost its relatively new software division – something Dell is hoping will rake in plenty of revenue in the coming years. Dell recently told TechWeekEurope that services and software now accounted for around 50 percent of its profits.

But Dell won’t be making any moves in the smartphone space, as it confirmed to TechWeekEurope earlier this week that it would not be making any more devices in a market that is dominated by Apple and Samsung.

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