A fresh round in the bidding war for Data Domain, a fast-growing company on the leading edge of data storage technology, looked imminent on Monday as the company rejected an all-cash $1.9bn bid from EMC.

Wall Street did not expect the snub to deter EMC, the giant of the storage industry, from continuing its quest in competition with NetApp, a rival storage group that has already won Data Domain’s backing for its own cash-and-stock takeover offer for the company.