EMC to Buy Iomega With SMBs in MindEMC to Buy Iomega With SMBs in Mind

Storage giant EMC wants to better serve small businesses, and is acquiring Iomega to help it do so.Word of the $213 million deal comes six months after EMC bought Berkeley Data Systems, which brought with it Mozy, an online backup service that also played in the SMB market. In EMC's latest deal, storage-device maker Iomega will be the core of EMC?s new Consumer/Small Business Products Division, headed by Iomega CEO Jonathan Huberman. EMC's enterprise reach could lead to Iomega producing enterprise-level storage technologies, such as deduplication, for the SMB environment, Huberman told InternetNews.com.

The acquisition also better positions EMC against Dell and HP in the SMB market, particularly for low-end, network-attached storage solutions, according to one analyst. The deal is expected to be complete by the end of June.

"Iomega will play a key role in EMC?s strategy to expand our information storage and management capabilities deeper into the high-growth consumer and small business markets," EMC leader Joe Tucci said in a statement.information, InternetNews