EMC expects further acquisitions

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June 10, 2011|By Bloomberg News

SAN FRANCISCO — EMC Corp. may spend about $3 billion on acquisitions this year, keeping pace with last year’s tally, as it expands beyond storage computers into complex data analysis, chief operating officer Pat Gelsinger said.

Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC will use deals to add tools and services that help customers speed decisions based on combing through so-called “big data,’’ reams of information from multiple sources, including the Web, e-mail, and computer systems, Gelsinger said in an interview.

“We have to double down,’’ Gelsinger said. “We’re not done with our acquisitions in this space— I expect we’ll do more. The number one storage infrastructure application for us is big data.’’

EMC says it spent $3.2 billion last year on acquisitions including Isilon Systems Inc. and Greenplum Inc. to gain products that let its customers store and analyze a vast and rapid onslaught of data from business applications and the Web. EMC may spend about that much again in 2011 as it races Oracle Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and SAP AG to offer more robust data-analysis products.

“Big data is of course big business all of a sudden,’’ said Joshua Greenbaum, an analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting in Berkeley, Calif. “Everyone is after this market. It’s a huge opportunity.’’

Gelsinger, who joined EMC almost two years ago from Intel Corp., where he was chief technology officer and headed the company’s business computer chip division, has helped EMC take advantage of the latest products from Intel and positioned the company to complement its storage devices with applications that analyze data for stock trading and Web commerce.

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