Update: HP Corp. has made a higher offer for 3PAR this evening, beating out the latest offer of $24.30 per share ($1.6-billion valuation)  from Dell. HP is offering $27 per share in an all cash deal, valuing 3PAR at $1.8-billion. HP says it has the capital to make the acquisition and it has already been approved by the board.

3Par Corporation has announced today they have agreed to Dell’s increased bid to acquire the company for $24.30 per share, valuing the acquisition price at $1.6-billion, net of cash.

The 3Par stock (NYSE:PAR) has traditionally traded with low variability, until August 16 when the price jumped from under $10 per share to $18 per share, and only five days later propelling up to $26 per share as a takeover agreement was imminent and the acquisition offers were considered fair going forward.

Under the tender offer deal, there is still a small likelihood that the acquisition could still fall through, as Dell has options to forego the acquisition, but the company would have to pay a $72-million termination fee as per the amended acquisition agreement that reflects the new bid price.

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One of the top five semiconductor makers in the world, Japan-based Renesas Electronics Corp., has entered into a definitive agreement with the Finnish phone maker, Nokia, to acquire part of the firms mobile operations.

The deal worth $200-million, will give Renesas exclusive ownership over previously held Nokia assets, including various GSM patents, and will see the acquisition of Nokia’s modem business unit.

Additionally as part of the deal, the company will also acquire a part of Nokia’s research and development division, which will consist of about 1,100 Nokia professionals who work mainly in Finland and India.

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IBM has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the California-based IT security software firm BigFix, with the details of the acquisition largely being kept private.

BigFix Inc. develops security and compliance software that companies implement in order to oversee and monitor computer networks, and to create policies for various machines to follow.

With infrastructure powered by BigFix, firms can implement numerous complex IT policies across hundreds of thousands of machines globally, including various administrative and control privileges, can execute tasks based on time/actions, can directly monitor and control machines across various operating platforms, among other complex tasks.

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International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation today confirmed it would acquire the Internet-based marketing analytics company Coremetrics, with the financial terms being kept private.

Coremetrics has developed proprietary cloud-based analytical and tracking software to allow companies to gain intelligence from online social networks, including Twitter, and Facebook, among even regular blogs, to give firms insights as to what consumers are saying about their offerings, all in real-time.

The idea is as firms gain insights into what consumers thoughts are about their brands or offerings, marketers could better understand buying patterns hence deliver more targeted campaigns and capitalize by changing to better meet consumer wants faster.

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International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, has finalized a deal to purchase the business software unit, Sterling Commerce, from AT&T in an all cash deal valued at $1.4-billion.

The unit develops B2B software that makes communication between businesses more efficient by automating redundant tasks such as refilling inventory orders from suppliers, among other automated tasks businesses can customize to their needs, even through cross channels.

According to AT&T, the unit has 18,000 global customers, with more than 1-billion interactions on an annual basis across various sectors including manufacturing, retail and financial services.

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Symantec CEO Enrique Salem

The computer security giant Symantec has announced the company will acquire VeriSign’s Security Business for $1.28-billion in an all cash deal.

Symantec, the maker of the popular consumer and business security anti-virus software Norton, will acquire VeriSign’s identity and authentication technologies, including the firm’s secure sockets layer (SSL), and public key infrastructure (PKI) technologies, in addition to the VeriSign Trust Services which includes the checkmark trademark that is used by websites to indicate their website is safe.

Symantec says it will consolidate part of the acquired technologies with its own, more specifically the identity authentication technologies will be merged with security software that is used on Internet servers.

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Canada’s IT giant CGI Group has announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the U.S.-based IT provider Stanely Inc. in an all cash deal valued at about $900-million.

CGI will pay $37.50 per Stanley share, a premium of 23.3-percent over the company’s 30-day weighted average price (a premium of 38.3-percent over the last 60-days).

The premium to be paid brings the total enterprise value of Stanley at a $1.07-billion valuation.

The strategic acquisition will help CGI penetrate lucrative U.S. markets that Stanely has already established, especially in the U.S. military and intelligence space.

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BumpTop, the 3D desktop software maker, has announced that it has been acquired by Google, with the terms of the deal being kept private.

BumpTop transforms your conventional PC desktop into a three-dimensional one, where you can more intuitively arrange files, folders, and media on the space in a feel that is more natural like a real desktop space.

Google today only confirmed the acquisition but said it would not disclose other information at this point in time, other than the fact that the core team at BumpTop would now be working at Google.

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According to a published blog post by the two-year old visual search engine company Plink, Google has acquired the company with financial details and terms of the deal being kept secret.

Plink is a visual search engine on Android that is able to analyze content visually and display search results. For example, a user could take a picture of a painting with their Android phone, and Plink would then analyze the photograph with its proprietary algorithm to give you additional information and search results. Philbin explained to The Guardian how the technology works, “It picks out repeatable elements from the image you take and comes out with a statistical representation of them.” The company says the Android app was downloaded more than 50,000 unique times.

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Time Inc. has announced today that it would buy StyleFeeder, an online shopping recommendation engine. StyleFeeder aggregates apparel information from thousands of online retailers and has a catalog of more than 14-million products in its database.

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