Business at a glance: Hewlett-Packard outbids Dell for 3Par

Hewlett-Packard outbids Dell for 3Par Inc.

Hewlett-Packard Co. topped Dell Inc. in the bidding for 3Par Inc. for the third time, agreeing to pay $30 a share, or $2 billion, for the data-storage provider. Dell said it would pay $27 a share for 3Par, matching Hewlett-Packard's previous bid. Dell said its earlier bid had been accepted by 3Par's board. Dell started the public bidding at $18 a share on Aug. 16.

Disney demand threatens Time Warner Cable deal

Time Warner Cable Inc.'s negotiations to renew rights to ESPN may be held up on a demand by the sports channel's owner, Walt Disney Co., to be paid for a related Web site. Disney is seeking a fee of about 10 cents a month per Web customer for ESPN3.com. Time Warner is resisting the fee. An agreement with Time Warner may raise questions among advocates of so-called net neutrality rules that have been proposed to prevent some websites from gaining priority access to Internet users. ESPN3.com is the only site to charge Web-service providers a subscriber-based access fee.

Intel reduces its

3rd-quarter forecast

Intel Corp. cut its third-quarter revenue forecast, citing weaker-than-expected consumer demand for personal computers in mature markets. Sales will be $11 billion, plus or minus $200 million, compared with a previously forecast range of $11.2 billion to $12 billion. Analysts predicted $11.5 billion. Gross profit margin won't reach the high end of the previous forecast.

Ford recalls Windstars over axle issues

Ford Motor Co. said it is recalling 575,000 Windstar minivans in the United States and Canada because rear axles may corrode and break. The voluntary recall affects 1998 to 2003 model-year Windstars in areas where road salt is used in cold weather, according to a notice on the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Web site.

Delivery delay slows Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Boeing Co. postponed delivery of its 787 Dreamliner for the sixth time after Rolls-Royce Group Plc was unable to supply an engine to complete flight testing. The first plane, due before the end of this year, will now be handed over in the middle of the first quarter of 2011. Rolls said the delay wasn't related to a 787 engine blowout on a test bed in Derby, England, which this month forced it to shut the site for repairs.

Insurance mergers gaining momentum

Insurance takeovers are headed for the biggest year since the peak of the last merger boom as financial-services firms from Bank of America Corp. to Aegon NV of the Netherlands jettison assets. Deals in the industry have jumped 60 percent to $44.8 billion so far this year, up from $28 billion in the same period of 2009. Bank of America, Aegon and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc have more than $10 billion in insurance assets currently on the block.

The financial crisis that crippled American International Group Inc. is providing a buying opportunity for competitors such as MetLife Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., which were quicker to recover from the global recession and are seeking growth in new markets.

BP well leak centers on engineer

Deep-water drilling engineer John Guide helped orchestrate BP Plc's climb during the past decade to largest producer of Gulf of Mexico crude. Then the Macondo well erupted on his watch, killing 11 workers and triggering the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. After months of hearings and media reports focusing on other participants in the April disaster, Guide, 52, is emerging as one of the critical decision-makers. According to internal company memos and testimony at recent hearings, it was Guide who vetoed a proposal to install equipment that may have kept explosive natural gas from seeping into the well and jetting up to the floating rig.