Dell is reportedly in advanced talks to buy systems management vendor Quest Software, which had previously announced a deal to be acquired by private-equity firm Insight Venture Partners for about $2bn.
Dell is one of the companies competing for the deal and has submitted offers for Quest Software, according to Bloomberg which cited unnamed sources.
The news comes after Quest announced on March 9, 2012 it had agreed a deal to be acquired by private equity firm Insight Venture Partners. Dell is one of many companies sniffing around during the "go-shop" period and according to Reuters has already seen one potential deal with Quest collapse.
Dell, the third biggest PC maker, has been striking deals to reduce its reliance on PC and server hardware and diversify its business offerings.
Dell has snapped up various software firms recently including Make Technologies, Wyse Technology, and Clarify Solutions.
Quest, headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, US offers products for application management, database management, Microsoft Windows management and virtualisation management.
Quest Software products are used in a number of functions, ranging from database management, data protection, identity and access management, monitoring, user workspace management and Windows management.
As of December 2011, Quest had 3,900 employees worldwide and reported annual revenues of $857m.
