Hewlett-Packard announced on Wednesday in the US that it intends to buy storage specialist LeftHand Networks for US$360 million.
Privately held LeftHand will fill out HP's virtualisation offerings as the tech giant targets midsize companies and corporate branch offices trying to keep costs under control as their data storage needs expand.
Founded in 1999, Boulder, Colorado-based LeftHand has had a particular focus on iSCSI storage area network (SAN) technology. It has 215 employees.
The all-cash deal is expected to close in the first quarter of HP's fiscal year 2009. LeftHand will be integrated into the StorageWorks division of HP's Technology Solutions Group.
