Dell Buying Quest Software (Really)

It’s the acquisition everyone thought would happen, then didn’t think would happen — Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) announced its intention to buy Quest Software (NASDAQ: QSFT) for $2.4 billion, snapping it out from under Insight Venture Partners.

The official announcement is the culmination of at least three months’ of rumor and speculation that Quest would become the latest company to join the Dell fray, but talks between the two companies apparently slowed in early June. Insight Venture Partners agreed to acquire Quest Software in March for $2 billion but the deal included a “go shop” period that allowed Quest Software to seek higher offers for the company.

As The VAR Guy noted in his most recent blog post about the potential deal, adding Quest to its portfolio potentially could set up Dell to compete in the cloud services and managed services spaces against such formidable companies as VMware (NYSE: VMW), Continuum, GFI Software, Level Platforms, Kaseya and others. It also positions the company to take on a bevy of data center management and automation software providers.

For sure it will take a while for the dust to settle so we can see where Quest’s technology fills the cracks in Dell’s lineup. One thing’s for sure: Dell is about to get a lot bigger, both in size and capability.