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Sun Microsystems Completes Acquisition of StorageTek3 September 2005
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced it has completed its acquisition of
StorageTek (Nasdaq: STK) following approval of StorageTek stockholders. Under the terms of the agreement, StorageTek stockholders will receive $37 per share in cash for each StorageTek share for an aggregate value of approximately $4.1 billion, including the assumption of employee stock options. Trading of StorageTek common stock has been suspended.
"By combining with StorageTek and leveraging its 35 years of leadership in the storage and data management market with Sun's 24 years in network computing solutions, Sun becomes an instant heavyweight in the global storage market," said Scott McNealy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Few companies are better positioned to help enterprises manage the complexities of information management. StorageTek knows how to
store it and Sun knows how to put that data to work better than any other company on the planet."
The Sun-StorageTek combination:
* Creates a global leader in network computing and data management with combined revenues of $13.3 billion for the last 12 months, and whose products hold 36% of the world's total archived data;
* Instantly expands the addressable customer base, providing significant new channels for each company's products and services around the globe;
* Provides customers with flexibility and choice in storage and data management offerings for heterogeneous environments, coupled with robust identity management and security solutions, drawing upon the combined companies' long history of innovation and proven data center expertise;
* Delivers shareholder value through access to significant growth opportunities in the storage market and an expanded sales force with a broader product and services portfolio.
With the close of the acquisition, StorageTek becomes a part of Sun's Data Management Group (DMG), formerly named Sun's Network Storage Group (NWS). This newly formed organization will be led by Mark Canepa, Executive Vice President, Data Management Group. Canepa, a 30 year tech veteran, has put the vision, strategy and leadership team in place to leverage Sun's powerful new position in the global storage market.
The DMG consists of three distinct business units -- Disk, Tape, and ILMS (Information Lifecycle Management Solutions) -- that are supported by world-class storage sales and services organizations, as well as data management experts committed to innovation in software, hardware and solutions development. The DMG leadership team is comprised of former StorageTek executives from sales, services and product development and marketing, along with members of Sun's storage team.
Leading the three key business units are: Kathleen Holmgren, Vice President, Disk Business; Nigel Dessau, Vice President, Tape Business; and Brenda Zawatski, Vice President, ILMS Business. The business units will be supported with world-class storage sales and services organizations, led by Michael McClay, Vice President of Data Management Sales, and Eula Adams, Vice President, Data Management Services. Dessau, Zawatski, McClay and Adams join
Sun from StorageTek.
In marking the close of the acquisition Canepa said, "Combining our strength in network identity with the world's deepest core competence in data archiving and information lifecycle management is a sweet spot that competitors simply cannot match. The intersection of the two is where our customers are headed, and where we plan to lead the industry."
Canepa continued, "I am thoroughly impressed with the top notch leadership team cultivated at StorageTek. Sun is very fortunate to have the opportunity to bring many of the company's key executives to the DMG leadership team and I'm confident that they will be making critical contributions to our future success in delivering solutions that meet out customers' storage and data management challenges."
StorageTek's former CEO, Pat Martin, will not be joining the combined company.
With the combined portfolios of two industry leaders, Sun now has all the building blocks to bring real value to information lifecycle management (ILM), including award-winning automated tape solutions, leading software and disk arrays, a comprehensive identity management product suite for virtually unmatched security, and leading-edge virtualization solutions. Based on lessons learned in heterogeneous mainframe and open systems environments, Sun will continue to develop repeatable methodologies, blueprints, and reference architectures that support all enterprises.
Sun and StorageTek are synergistic in product sets and solutions with very little overlap. The disk and management software areas are where product collaboration can be achieved and Sun expects to do this within the next two months.
Industry Analysts, Partners and Customers Praise Combination:
"Sun's acquisition of StorageTek creates a new player in the storage industry. The strength of StorageTek's data protection and recovery solutions and global, storage-focused sales specialists combined with Sun's more complete set of primary storage solutions creates an end-to-end set of multi-platform offerings and capabilities that is substantially better prepared to meet today's demanding and varied storage requirements," said John McArthur, Group Vice President and General Manager of IDC's Information Infrastructure division.
"Symantec has a long-standing partnership and strong software OEM/reseller business with both StorageTek and Sun," said Niall Wall, Vice President, Business Development and Alliances, Symantec. "We are excited about the synergies we expect from Sun's acquisition of StorageTek since this will allow us to combine Sun's leading server and storage assets with Symantec's data, storage and server management, availability and security software to deliver
world class enterprise solutions."
"Data storage systems and software from Sun and StorageTek have allowed us to deliver effective, cost-efficient storage and retrieval of massive quantities of patient data," said Dr. Robert Cecil, Network Director, Radiology and Cardiology for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. "Both companies have provided pieces of the solution. With Sun's acquisition of StorageTek, the combined company will be able to provide the complete solution. It's an
outstanding opportunity for them to provide a continuum of solutions that marry disk and tape storage, especially when the growth of data greatly outpaces the increases in disk storage capacity alone. Tape backup remains an important part of the equation to handle exploding data growth cost effectively, especially for those of us in the medical community."
"As a partner of both Sun and StorageTek, Engenio sees this combination as a major win for customers and partners alike, as it expands Sun's storage solutions portfolio," said Flavio Santoni, Engenio Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Customer Support. "Following the acquisition, Engenio storage platforms will expand across the spectrum of Sun's storage portfolio and Sun customers will have a broader family of modular solutions to
choose from to tackle tough problems like compliance, consolidation and content management in their open enterprises."
StorageTek's financial results will be included in Sun's consolidated financial statements from the date of close, to September 25, the end of Sun's fiscal 2006, first quarter. Sun expects the transaction to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings in the first 12 months.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
A singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" [TM] -- guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world's most important markets. Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java, StorEdge and The
Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Sun Media Contact:
Stephanie Von Allmen
650-786-8589
stephanie.vonallmen@sun.com
Sun Industry Analyst Contact:
Joanne Masters
650-786-0847
joanne.masters@sun.com
Sun Investor Contact:
Paul Ziots
650-786-0411
paul.ziots@sun.com
Source: PR Newswire
All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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