Hewlett-Packard Wednesday plunged deeper into the networked storage market with the acquisition of venture-backed LeftHand Networks for about $360 million.
Nine-year-old LeftHand Networks was backed by venture capital funds including Boulder Ventures, Sequel Venture Partners, Ironside Ventures and the Sprout Group.
The LeftHand deal, which follows the 2007 acquisition of storage software maker Polyserve, helps fill in HP’s data storage product line for mid-size companies. LeftHand provides storage-area network technology across a network, which allows companies to scale up as their needs increase.
No. 1 computer company HP competes against EMC and other companies in the storage market.
Shares of HP fell $.93, or 2 percent, to $45.31 in early afternoon trading.