EMC in Exclusive Talks to Buy Isilon for More Than $2 Billion

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EMC in exclusive talks to buy Isilon
EMC Corp. is in exclusive talks to buy computer-storage company Isilon for more than $2 billion, The Post has learned. "The deal will be done this year," a source close to the situation said.

Comments

If this information is exact - and it's possible -, it will be the biggest storage acquisition of the year after 3par by HP for $2.35 billion. The current market cap of Isilon is $1.8 billion.

The word "exclusive" has also to be confirmed, meaning that no other company - and we think here about Dell missing 3par - could outbid EMC.

Isilon is in clustered storage, EMC also, but Isilon has a technology for high bandwidth much more successful in the media and entertainment and here more in competition with NetApp that EMC.

So, the acquisition of Isilon by EMC could be a good move for EMC not only to obtain a remarkable architecture for files - and now for blocks - but also to avoid a competitor to get it.

The price of $2 billion is not so high. 3par was on an annual rate of $194 million in revenues and never profitable. Isilon is at $160 million to $170 million and profitable since several quarters.