Why Did EMC Buy Iomega?

By now you've read the news reports that EMC bought Iomega for $213 million. I can't help but wonder what they got that was worth it. Back in the days when 100 MB Zip disks were the easiest way to move more than a floppy's load of data from one place to another, Iomega was a force to be reckoned with. Today it sells USB hard drives, low-end NAS boxes running Windows Storage Server, and the REV removable media hard drive. Why would EMC, king of the services sale, want to enter the low-margin con

Howard Marks, Network Computing Blogger

April 9, 2008

1 Min Read
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By now you've read the news reports that EMC bought Iomega for $213 million. I can't help but wonder what they got that was worth it. Back in the days when 100 MB Zip disks were the easiest way to move more than a floppy's load of data from one place to another, Iomega was a force to be reckoned with. Today it sells USB hard drives, low-end NAS boxes running Windows Storage Server, and the REV removable media hard drive. Why would EMC, king of the services sale, want to enter the low-margin consumer market where it will compete with Seagate and Western Digital? Even if it does, is the Iomega name worth $200 million? I really can't believe it was desperate for the REV technology. What do you think?

About the Author

Howard Marks

Network Computing Blogger

Howard Marks is founder and chief scientist at Deepstorage LLC, a storage consultancy and independent test lab based in Santa Fe, N.M. and concentrating on storage and data center networking. In more than 25 years of consulting, Marks has designed and implemented storage systems, networks, management systems and Internet strategies at organizations including American Express, J.P. Morgan, Borden Foods, U.S. Tobacco, BBDO Worldwide, Foxwoods Resort Casino and the State University of New York at Purchase. The testing at DeepStorage Labs is informed by that real world experience.

He has been a frequent contributor to Network Computing and InformationWeek since 1999 and a speaker at industry conferences including Comnet, PC Expo, Interop and Microsoft's TechEd since 1990. He is the author of Networking Windows and co-author of Windows NT Unleashed (Sams).

He is co-host, with Ray Lucchesi of the monthly Greybeards on Storage podcast where the voices of experience discuss the latest issues in the storage world with industry leaders.  You can find the podcast at: http://www.deepstorage.net/NEW/GBoS

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