Forbes has an article today about the run-up in the stock price of Data Domain.  EMC and NetApp are the strong suitors here.  Each sees a tremendous value to the technology and IP housed at Data Domain.  Mostly known for de-duplication, Data Domain is a major player in backup, archiving and disaster recovery.

Excerpt from the Forbes/AP piece:

Investors bet that a higher offer is coming in the bidding war for Data Domain Inc., sending shares of the data storage company soaring Tuesday.
NetApp Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif., company, offered $25 per share in cash and stock for Digital Domain on May 20, pegging the total value of the deal at $1.5 billion. Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC Corp. ( EMC – news - people ) stepped in Monday with an all-cash offer of $30 per share, or $1.8 billion.

That is a lot of money people!  It should underscore the importance of data management and backing up.  We will also write an article for later about de-duplication.