HOPKINTON, USA: EMC announced that it had made an offer to acquire Data Domain for $30 per share in a deal worth about $1.8 billion.

EMC’s all-cash offer represents a 20 percent premium over the $25 per share cash and stock bid made by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based NetApp on May 20.

EMC, based in Hopkinton, Mass., says a deal would help broaden its range of storage products and grow revenue and profits.

In a statement Monday, EMC Chief Executive Joe Tucci said, “Our substantially superior proposal is a win-win for both companies.”

Data Domain is a pioneer in the development of data deduplication technology, and is by far the best-known vendor of the technology. The company manufacturers a series of storage appliances that tightly integrates its dedupe technology with dedicated storage capacity. It also offers software for data replication and virtual tape libraries.

Both EMC and NetApp currently offer data dedupe technology, which is why the fight between the two over Data Domain is so interesting, according to solution providers.