EMC Corporation's Stake In VMware Inc. Stirred Hewlett-Packard Interest

EMC Corporation's EMC 80 percent stake in VMware, Inc. VMW is what attracted computer maker Hewlett-Packard Company's HPQ recent interest, according to a report Tuesday.

VMware, with a market cap of $41 billion, supplies key software for cloud computing and Hewlett is targeting that market for sales of its products.

But EMC, which has a market capitalization of about $60 billion, shunned an offer of $130 billion from Hewlett and talks were broken off, according to a report Tuesday from re/code.

Activist investor Paul Singer's Elliot management disclosed in July that it wanted EMC to spin-off its shares in VMware. Elliot holds a 2 percent stake in EMC.

Along with Hewlett, Dell recently held merger talks with EMC, according to a report Monday in The Wall Street Journal. But Dell, relatively smaller, might be interested in only acquiring EMC's core storage business, according to the newspaper.

EMC and VMware shares closed Tuesday nearly unchanged.