Cisco, EMC plan partnership, not merger

By Jim Finkle

BOSTON (Reuters) - Tech heavyweights Cisco Systems Inc and EMC Corp dampened speculation of a merger as they unveiled a partnership to take on rivals Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM.

The companies have spent three years developing technology and ironing out the details of a deep partnership through which they will bundle Cisco's networking equipment and server computers with EMC's storage and virtualization technology.

Their goal is to become a top provider of data center products as the industry switches to "cloud" computing services, where data is stored on central servers that can be accessed over the Internet and corporate networks.

Cisco and EMC also announced a joint venture with Intel Corp called Acadia that will offer to help build and run some data center systems for companies.

As they announced that partnership on Tuesday, top executives from both companies suggested that persistent speculation that Cisco plans to acquire EMC was unfounded.

EMC Chief Executive Joe Tucci said in an interview that the rumors may have been sparked as investors got wind of the close talks between the two companies that led to the partnership over the past few years.

Cisco CEO John Chambers said in the same interview: "Our tendencies are to partner together. I think we do that remarkably well."

When specifically asked if he was interested in buying EMC, as investors have long speculated might be the case, Chambers said: "You buy big-to-small. You partner big-to-big."