Dell's announcement came after HP increased its bid to 33 U.S. dollars per share, which values 3PAR at about 2.4 billion dollars, topping Dell's most recent offer of 32 dollars per share.

    3PAR has determined that HP's revised bid is a "superior proposal" while found Dell's final offer "unacceptable" on the requirements of increased termination fee and other terms.

    Dell then announced that it will not match HP's offer and had ended acquisition discussions with 3PAR.

    "We took a measured approach throughout the process and have decided to end these discussions," Dave Johnson, Dell's senior vice president of corporate strategy.

    Dell said it is entitled to receive a break-up fee of 72 million dollars from 3PAR upon the termination of its merger agreement.

    Dell first signed an agreement to purchase 3PAR for 18 dollars per share on Aug. 16, which was later trumped by HP. The two companies raised their offers several times in the last two weeks.

    The public bidding war between HP and Dell came as the two personal computer giants are striving to diversify their business and push into enterprise data center as well as other more profitable markets.

    3PAR is a provider of highly-virtualized storage solutions called "utility storage," designed to be the storage foundation for utility computing that enables information technology organizations to deliver software and hardware as a service through server and storage virtualization.