EMC Corp : Hardware explores into the Software Arena

Oracle which excelled as the leader in the database software market, entered EMC's core business of selling storage equipment with its purchase of Sun Microsystems in the month of January this year. EMC is again planning an all-cash purchase of seven-year-old Greenplum, which sells software for data warehousing computer systems that large companies use to analyze data about business trends.

"It's another way to grow their available market," said Wedbush Securities analyst Kaushik Roy. "Data warehousing is a rapidly growing market. They are probably doing the right thing."

EMC said “It will set up a new division to sell Greenplum's software and also develop specialized data warehousing hardware systems that will come pre-installed with Greenplum.”

The new data warehousing division will be headed by Greenplum chief executive Bill Cook, who spent 19 years working at Sun Microsystems before joining Greenplum. Sun Micro co-founder Scott McNealy is an executive advisor to Greenplum, and is designated with the responsibility of helping the company in areas such as strategic planning and business development.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter and will have no impact on EMC's 2010 per-share net income or per-share profit excluding items, the companies said. The announcement didn’t also affect shares in Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based EMC were unchanged from their New York Stock Exchange close of $18.16.