Fusion-IO share price soars on back of Dell merger rumours

Hardware giant Dell is rumoured to have had a bid to acquire storage vendor Fusion-IO knocked back.

According to a report on Seeking Alpha, Fusion- IO's share price jumped by more than seven per cent on Friday after a tweet linking the two firms began to circulate online.

It claimed Fusion-IO had recently turned down a $33 per share bid from Dell to acquire the firm.

IT Pro contacted Dell and Fusion-IO to confirm or deny the rumour earlier today and was still awaiting a response as this article went to press.

Latest Videos FromIT Pro

Watch full video here:

Dell has made a number of acquisitions in the storage market in recent years, having splashed the cash on iSCSI SAN vendor EqualLogic and fellow SAN specialist Compellent.

Fusion-IO was founded in 2005 and specialises in the manufacture of solid state disk (SSD) products that are sold through OEM partners, including Dell, HP, IBM and Supermicro.

The firm released its third quarter 2012 results at the end of last month, and posted a record revenue of $94.2 million (58.61 million) against a net loss of $4.7 million (2.92 million).

In a statement released at the time, Dennis Wolf, chief financial officer at Fusion-IO, said: "We believe our vision is resonating with customers and strategic partners, and we will continue to prioritise the expansion of our market footprint along with investment in innovation."

Caroline Donnelly was the news and analysis editor of IT Pro. Previously, she worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.