NEW YORK, USA: Hewlett-Packard Co won the bidding war to buy data storage company 3PAR Inc for $2.4 billion, as rival Dell Inc bowed out on Thursday.

HP raised its cash offer by $3 to $33 per share, beating Dell's $32-a-share offer and ending an escalation of bids that many analysts said had gone too far.

3PAR shares closed up 2.5 per cent at $32.88 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. They had mostly traded around $10 this year, until Dell announced its initial $18 per share bid in mid-August.

The deal values 3PAR at over eight times sales, and many analysts said that was too high for a company that has barely ever made a profit since it was founded in 1999. Multiples above five are considered lofty in technology deals.

Others, however, say 3PAR is worth it. The company competes with bigger rival EMC Corp in data storage, considered a key part of "cloud computing" – an increasingly popular technology that enables computer users to access data and software over the Internet, allowing companies to cut costs.

Such technology is seen increasingly crucial as emails, online video and electronic business transactions put a strain on corporate data centers. HP's vast and global sales force could quickly turn 3PAR into a bigger, more profitable business, some said.

"Do I think it was an extremely rich valuation? Absolutely. But I think, given that it's all cash, it shouldn't take too long for it to be accretive," said Stifel Nicolaus & Co analyst Aaron Rakers. "The question is, what kind of revenue synergy assumptions are they making?"

HP's aggressive bidding also showed it had no intention to be sidelined from deals in the absence of a CEO. Mark Hurd resigned last month as chief executive in a scandal surrounding inaccurate expense reports related to a female marketing contractor.