History 2002: Ontrack Finally Finds Buyer

Kroll Data recovery software maker Ontrack Data International was very nearly acquired in 1999 by Legato Systems. The deal centered on the sum of $134 million in stock and cash. The severe drop in Legato share value, however, resulted in the cancellation of the transaction.

Now, however, a deal seems much more probable, since the NY-based Kroll Inc. has executed a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Ontrack, even if the deal is subjected to customary closing conditions including shareholder and regulatory approvals. The all stock deal is valued at $140 mil lion.

The 2 companies have known each other since 1999, since Kroll subcontracted its forensics activity to Ontrack and, as early as July 1999, they began discussions of a possible business combination transaction, conversations picked up again in August 2001 that led to the current deal.

Kroll is specialized in investigative, intelligence and security services, has 55 offices on 6 continents, 1,600 employees, and finished 2001 with sales of $208 million (+3%) and a net loss of $2 1 million.

Ontrack had FY01 sales of $56 million (+5%) with a net loss of $100,000.

The latter’s president and CEO Ben Allen, 37, will be the president of a new Kroll business group, called the data recovery and discovery group, incorporating both companies’ electronic discovery and computer forensics operations.

Michael Rogers, John Pence and Gary Stevens founded Ontrack in 1985, with a HDD installation utility as a first product.

Since then, Ontrack has focused on software and services to protect, backup, recover and discover computer data, with sites in USA, Europe and Japan.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 172 on May 2002 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.