Compellent shares surge on Reuters report that the company is in talks with Frank Quattrone and other bankers

Reuters was first to report on Oct 26 that Compellent Technologies is seeking advice on a possible sale and that the data storage company has met with Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners, among other banks. Quattrone had advised rival data storage company 3Par Inc, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard after a bidding war against Dell Inc ended in September. He had also advised Data Domain, which was bought by EMC Corp <EMC.N> last year. Reuters reported that potential suitors for Compellent include Potential Dell, IBM, Oracle and Cisco. Compellent`s shares surged 13 percent on the news, before settling to close around 10 percent higher. The article also stirred interest among the analyst community: during the company’s Q3 earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Philip Soran was asked whether Compellent has hired a bank. He declined to comment.