IBM Corporation (NYSE: IBM) is in talks to acquire data storage company Storwize Inc. at a company value of $140 million. Storwize has raised $38 million since it was founded in 2004, which means that the sale is a successful exit by the company's investors.
Storwize said in response that it does not respond to rumors.
Storwize president Gal Naor and CTO Jonathan Amit founded the company, which develops real-time data compression software for handling data even before it is sent to storage systems. In recent years, data compression for storage systems has become a pressing need in view of the huge quantities of enterprise data, upgrades of communications infrastructures, and the need to save space and electricity costs.
Storwize says that its systems can compress data at a ratio of up to 1:15, reducing storage space by up to 95%.
Storwize was initially based at Yehud, outside Tel Aviv, but Naor and Amit moved thefirm to the US, the company's primary market, in early 2008 in order to meet their growth plans.
Storwize has held three financing rounds. Its investors include Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Capital, Pujo Zabludowicz's Tamares Group, Tenaya Capital (formerly the venture capital arm of Lehman Brothers), Tokyo Electron Device Ltd., Dutch private equity investor group Stichting Gemeenschappelijk Bezit, and Israeli private investors former Bank Hapoalim chairman Shlomo Nehama, and Igal Ahouvi.
If the acquisition deal is closed, Storwize's founders and investors will make a good three-fold return on their investment.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 13, 2010
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