NetApp Inc. (NTAP): Billionaire Sets His Sights on Data Storage

Fresh off activist wins at Hess and BMC Software, billionaire hedge fund activist Paul Singer is now taking aim at NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP). Paul Singer’s Elliot Management recently reported a stake of just under 5% in its latest 13F filing with the SEC. Reports indicate that Singer has been having discussions with the company for several weeks about strategic options, including new directors and returning cash to shareholders (see Singer’s latest moves).

Don’t take Paul Singer lightly

Paul Singer is certainly an investor a company doesn’t want to be a target of. He has also famously gone after Argentina over debt payments. Singer has taken Argentina to U.S. Federal Court demanding full repayment on bonds his firm owns. He won a court order seizing a ship belonging to Argentina last year, and the President of Argentina will only rent a plane for international travel as she is afraid that her own plane could be seized by Singer overseas.

Singer launched an aggressive campaign to shake up Hess. He was even able to get the company’s namesake John Hess to split the Chairman and CEO titles. With three of his nominees winning board seats, Singer will move towards his strategy of splitting up the company to increase shareholder value. Singer has indicated that if the company were separated into 3 companies – international operations, domestic shale assets, and refining, that the company could be worth as much as $126 a share.

For Singer, this isn’t his first foray into looking for change at a technology company. He was successful in his campaign at BMC Software to get the company sold. BMC Software struck an agreement this year to be taken private for $46.25 a share in cash in a deal led by Bain Capital. It seems that when Paul Singer speaks, companies listen.

NetApp is an undervalued situation

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) is a data-storage company. Shares surged 6.2% after the news was announced of Elliot’s stake in the company. Over the past two years, the stock is down 33%. Where the value lies in NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) is that it’s a cash-rich company–at the end of April the company had more than $7 billion in cash, or half the company’s current market cap of $13.86 billion. NetApp needs to do something to return cash to shareholders in the form of dividends or buybacks. Currently, the company is doing neither.

NetApp would be an attractive acquisition target for either of these companies

The other option that Elliot has is to push for a sale of the company like it did with BMC Software. NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been in business since 1992. At the height of the dot-com boom, the company was valued at almost $47 billion in 2000. The company has a solid business and could fit into the product mix of Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) or Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO).

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)currently provides data storage solutions for Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL). NetApp storage is able to scale Oracle’s databases. In other words, NetApp provides Oracle customers an easier solution as they expand their databases. Considering that Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) has a current market cap of over $161 billion and over $33 billion in cash, an acquisition of NetApp would be a drop in the bucket and allow Oracle to integrate NetApp into its line of Oracle products (see which hedge funds are loving Oracle).