NEW YORK (Reuters) - Data storage provider 3PAR Inc <PAR.N> said on Friday that shareholders owning about a third of its shares have agreed to accept Hewlett-Packard Co's<HPQ.N> proposal to buy the company for $2.4 billion.
HP won a bidding war for 3PAR as Dell Inc <DELL.O> bowed out on Thursday when HP raised its cash offer by $3 to $33 per share to trump Dell's $32-a-share offer.
3PAR had traded mostly around $10 this year, until Dell announced a $18 per share bid in mid-August.
Its shares were down 3 cents at $32.85 in premarket trade after closing at $33.88 on New York Stock Exchange Thursday.
The storage company competes with bigger rival EMC Corp <EMC.N> in a key part of "cloud computing" -- an increasingly popular technology that lets computer users access data and software over the Internet, allowing companies to cut costs.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
