HP completes tender offer for ArcSight
With tender offer to buy ArcSight for $1.5 billion in cash complete, HP expects to merge the company with one of its subsidiaries in the next few days.
HP announced today that it has completed its tender offer of ArcSight and expects to integrate its new acquisition with an HP subsidiary in the next several days.
Around 33.1 million shares, or 92.1 percent of ArcSight's outstanding shares, were tendered to HP, giving it full ownership of the security and compliance management company. HP paid a total of $1.5 billion, or $43.50 per share, to acquire ArcSight, which makes products to help businesses monitor their networks and data centers for security threats.
HP is eyeing its integration of ArcSight as a way to protect customers who are increasingly facing more sophisticated cyberattacks and the need to comply with stricter regulatory demands. HP has lauded ArcSight for its strong product lineup, including a logging engine that captures security activity and a correlation event engine that provides an overview of security threats.
Some reports said that HP engaged in a bidding war for ArcSight with other companies, with the bidding quickly rising past $40 a share. HP doesn't expect the acquisition to dilute its fiscal 2011 earnings in any material way. But at the same time it will also need to digest its $2.4 billion acquisition of 3Par, which it won last month by outbidding Dell.
Update Oct. 22 at 5:09 a.m. PDT: HP said today that it has completed the acquisition of ArcSight.