The dominant storage vendor plans to combine Data Domain's data de-duplication technology with its own to tap into the growing market for data de-duplication, an archiving technology that eliminates duplicate bits of information to use storage capacity more efficiently.

EMC proposed offering $30 per share from its existing cash reserves for Data Domain. It would run the acquired company as a division of EMC and increase research and development investment, EMC Chairman, President and CEO Joe Tucci said on a conference call to discuss the offer.

"This acquisition is all about accelerating growth," Tucci said.