EMC Gets Majority Of Data Domain

EMC on Monday said it has obtained majority ownership of dedupe leader Data Domain.

The move clears the way for solution providers to forge closer relations with both partners' sales forces to enhance their accounts.

EMC said Date Domain stockholders have tendered about 78.2 percent of their outstanding shares in that company. That, combined with the 3.9 percent of Data Domain that EMC previously owned, gives EMC a total 82.1 percent share of the company.

Once the acquisition is complete, which EMC said should be by the end of July, Data Domain will become the foundation of a new product division within EMC.

That new product division, to be headed by Frank Slootman, Data Domain's current president and CEO, will be focused on the development and delivery of next-generation, disk-based backup, archiving and recovery solutions, and could deliver up to $1 billion in revenue by 2010, EMC said.

EMC on July 8 entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Data Domain for $2.1 billion after beating NetApp after a prolonged bidding war for the company.

NetApp on May 20 said it planned to acquire Data Domain for $1.5 billion in cash and stock. EMC on June 1 bid $30 per share in cash, totaling $1.8 billion, for Data Domain. NetApp followed on June 3 with a cash and stock bid of $1.9 billion.

Data Domain is the leading vendor of deduplication technology, also called "dedupe," which removes duplicate information as data is stored, backed up or archived. This results in a significant decrease in storage capacity requirements.

With the acquisition, EMC has laid a $2.1 billion foundation for a new business, one with much potential to grow, said Keith Norbie, vice president of sales at Nexus Information Systems, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based solution provider and partner to both EMC and Data Domain.

While much of the industry still thinks of Data Domain as a dedupe vendor, that view obscures the significance of the company as a top-notch developer of primary storage, Norbie said.

"It's like calling a nuclear weapon a bomb," he said.

It is now up to solution providers, especially those who work with both vendors, to take a hard look at their relationships with them, Norbie said.

"There will be a period of time where solid Data Domain partners who are also EMC partners can really go out and do well," he said. "Those without a core Data Domain or EMC relationship will be second in line with EMC."

Ever since it became clear that EMC would acquire Data Domain, Nexus has been developing a "Tour De Dupe" program under which it has looked at its existing customers for new opportunities to bring the two vendors together in their accounts, Norbie said.

So far, Nexus has identified more than 20 such accounts. "This immediately lets me walk into my partnership review with EMC, and talk to clients about EMC or Data Domain or some combo, and have a much broader conversation than in the past," Norbie said. "EMC will have a big grin on its face when we walk in, and will welcome the hunting party."

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