EMC this morning upped its hostile offer for Data Domain by $3.50 to $33.50 a share cash, a total of roughly $2.1 billion, in an attempt to squeeze out rival NetApp, Data Domain's preferred but cash-strapped suitor, which has only managed to scrap together a bid price of $30 a share in cash and stock so far.

The stock market evidently thinks the auction isn't over yet.

EMC's news drove Data Domain's price over $34 a share in early morning trading.

NetApp's attempt to spook Data Domain stockholders with tales of regulators stopping EMC's bid out of antitrust concerns also failed.

EMC said this morning that it had gotten early clearance from the Federal Trade Commission.

The wave-through puts EMC even with NetApp, which cleared the regulatory hurdle last Thursday, pushing Data Domain to set a special stockholders meeting for August 14 to vote on the $1.9 billion NetApp proposal.

EMC, however, also removed the break-up fee and other deal protections that Data Domain's board initially found objectionable in its bid. CEO Joe Tucci told Data Domain in a letter Monday that it's prepared to close in two weeks, a month sooner than NetApp, and reiterated that his all-cash offer is superior to NetApp's cash and stock deal.

NetApp originally offered $25 a share in cash and stock and thought it would simply waltz off with the deduplication specialist until EMC turned up a couple of weeks later with a surprise $30 cash offer that it was forced to try to meet.

EMC has extended its tender offer until midnight July 17.

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