Just a week after Dell announced its plans to acquire data-storage company 3PAR, rival Hewlett-Packard has made a competing bid. HP is offering $24 per share, 33 percent higher than Dell’s bid, giving 3PAR a valuation of $1.6 billion. The bidding war has caused 3PAR’s stock to rise 37% in premarket trading this morning.

The acquisition of 3Par by Dell was for expansion purposes, as the PC-maker seeks to grow its own data-storage services (read here for more details). This is a move several companies are making, as the enterprise sector shifts much of its IT budget around virtualization. The trend has also led to rising interest in the securities department. The Wall Street Journal explains,

For Dell, which earns about half its revenue from selling PCs, the acquisition is the latest attempt to grab a bigger piece of corporate spending on data centers, as information-technology budgets gradually come back after the recession.

The bidding war is indicative of HP’s competition with Dell; both companies have made a string of acquisitions around virtual data storage and protection. Earlier this year Dell snapped up another data-storage service Ocarina, with HP more recently acquiring Fortify’s security technology.

Read here for an in-depth analysis on Dell’s acquisition hopes for 3Par, and here for some insight to the Ocarina deal.