By Jerry A. DiColo
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)
"We will partner with them just as often," Georgens said in an interview Friday. He conceded that EMC has a loyal base of customers but said NetApp can grow by finding new opportunities outside of that base.
NetApp has fared better than many of its peers amid the recession, even as corporate spending has fallen as companies conserve cash. On Thursday, NetApp reported that its fiscal second-quarter revenue remained flat from last year, but profit doubled on sharply higher margins.
The stock on Friday ended down 1.3% to $30.44, though shares have more than doubled over the past year and are up 41% over the past three months.
NetApp is often mentioned as a potential acquisition target amid the increasing consolidation in the IT industry. Georgens, who took the reins of the Sunnyvale, Calif., storage-product maker in August from veteran chief executive Dan Warmenhoven, said he was open to an acquisition at the right price, but he stressed that his focus is to continue to grow.
"If you look at market penetration, market share, there are still substantial opportunities to grow in this market," he said. "There is ample evidence that we can continue to gain share."
"At some price, it's a shareholder matter, no matter what our preference is," he added.
Tech giants have recently moved to build one-stop technology shops, combining hardware, software and services companies to bring a full suite of products to customers trying to simplify their IT infrastructure.
Following Hewlett-Packard Co.'s (HPQ) purchase of tech-services firm EDS, Dell Inc. (DELL) and Xerox Corp. (XRX) have moved to boost their services offerings. Meanwhile, software giant Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is still waiting for approval from the European Union to complete its acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc (JAVA).
EMC and Cisco, along with virtualization software maker VMWare Inc. (VMW), have unveiled a partnership to design all-in-one products, leaving many in the industry to speculate that NetApp could be the next target for companies such as Dell and H-P that may want to boost their storage offerings.
Georgens said NetApp would continue to pursue acquisitions as well after losing a bid for storage-maker Data Domain to EMC and said he would be willing to spend more than the $1.9 billion offered for Data Domain in June if the right opportunity emerged.
"For a bigger deal that justified a higher valuation, I think we could go further than we did," he said.
-By Jerry A. DiColo; Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2155; jerry.dicolo@dowjones.com