Data Domain appears to be the next casualty of the swift consolidation of IT vendors. NetApp and EMC continue in what has become a bidding war in the acquisition of Data Domain. NetApp began the bidding at $1.5 Billion and it has slowly eked its way up to $1.9 Billion. What are they buying? Something they both already claim to have a really good solution for, data de-duplication. While this acquisition is not as big of a deal as other recent buyouts it is worth noting. NetApp and EMC are becoming bitter rivals and the technology and research and development that each is looking to acquire via Data Domain would further strengthen either organization in the core offering of each: storage.