Another Shopping List For Dell

The time has come for Dell (DELL) to do a “transformational” acquisition, UBS analyst Maynard Um asserts in a research note this morning. He thinks the company needs to reduce its focus on commoditized hardware and make a move into higher margin services and software. This is not a new idea: back in December , Avian Securities analyst Avi Cohen weighed in with some acquisition ideas; his list included Sun Microsystems (JAVA), which of course has agreed to be acquired by Oracle (ORCL), and Data Domain (DDUP), now the subject of a tug-of-war between EMC (EMC) and NetApp (NTAP). Names from his list that haven’t yet been swallowed include CommVault (CVLT), Compellent (CML) and 3Par (PAR). Others have made alternative suggestions. Bernstein has proposed the company buy Acer , for instance. And of course, there have been rumors that they might buy Palm (PALM) Um notes a series of signals that M&A is receiving new scrutiny at Dell: April 2009: ... (link)