NEW YORK (Dow Jones) – The battle being waged for data-storage company 3Par Inc. (PAR) weighed on shares of Dell Inc. (DELL) on Tuesday, with the computer giant widely expected to sweeten its takeover offer to top Hewlett-Packard Co.’s (HPQ) bid.

On Monday, H-P made an unsolicited bid for 3Par that marked a 33% premium to a deal Dell and 3Par had signed off on a week earlier. H-P offered to pay $24 for each 3Par share, valuing the company at $1.6 billion.

While Dell hasn’t yet responded to H-P’s bid, the company is expected to boost its offer–a possibility that weighed on its shares, recently sending them down 3.7% to $11.50 amid broader market weakness. H-P, meanwhile, slid 0.9% to $36.68, while 3Par climbed 3% to $26.86. 3Par’s shares were trading at $9.65 before Dell’s offer was made public.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Aaron Rakers said it’s likely Dell will boost its offer for 3Par to $27 to $30 per share and that the computer giants are “kind of throwing valuation out the window.”

Dave Russell, a storage analyst at research firm Gartner, said the bidding war is “really going to come down to how important this asset is to each of the companies.”

A representative from 3Par said the company’s board is reviewing the offer from H-P, but declined to comment further. Dell declined to comment as well.

Also dragging down Dell shares Tuesday were worries that Dell’s offer for 3Par will strain its relationship with data-storage giant EMC Corp. (EMC). Dell currently resells high-end network storage products made by EMC, an arrangement that analysts say erodes margins on its storage-products revenue. But Dell’s bid for 3Par could lead EMC to distance itself or make the partnership less profitable for Dell.

“By bidding on 3Par, Dell has given EMC the incentive to look for alternative paths to market, like going to channel partners and trying to sell in competition to Dell,” Baird analyst Jayson Noland said.

And if Dell isn’t successful in its bid for 3Par, he said, the company would “be back where they were, but with a less happy partner.”

EMC wasn’t immediately available to comment.

3Par makes hardware that stores information in company data centers, one area in the corporate information-technology market that continues to grow quickly as companies use more space to hold the billions of emails, customer orders and other vital information needed to run their businesses.

The battle for the 11-year-old company comes as technology companies increasingly look for new products and services that can boost margins. Already, Dell and H-P have branched out into high-end services businesses to augment their core computer sales. Both are hoping to shore up margins that have been pressured as consumers and businesses demand better deals amid cutthroat competition in the industry.

And importantly, the type of products 3Par sells would help Dell break into bigger corporate customers, such as large institutional banks, that they don’t have today. Analysts say that 3Par is the only company in the high-end storage market that Dell can buy.

“Dell showed its cards here a little bit,” Stifel’s Rakers said. “If [3Par] was touted as a real differentiator for Dell long term and they don’t get it, where do they focus next?”

-By Shara Tibken, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2189; shara.tibken@dowjones.com

If you enjoyed this post then Subscribe to Savvy Investor via RSS