EMC Agrees to Buy Closely Held Vendor Of Storage Software
August 17, 2005

EMC Corp. agreed to acquire Rainfinity, a closely held vendor of storage-virtualization software, executives from the companies said.

The companies didn't disclose precise financial terms, but EMC said the transaction, which is expected to be announced today and completed by the end of the month, is valued at less than $100 million.

The purchase gives EMC, of Hopkinton, Mass., a software tool that corporate users employ to make a large number of scattered data-storage devices function as one machine, a form of technology known as virtualization.

Recently, tech companies have been touting virtualization products, and EMC introduced a storage-virtualization device this year.

Rainfinity's software works with a technology called network-attached storage, which typically is cheaper than the technology used by EMC's flagship data-storage machines and has seen strong growth lately.

EMC, which made its name with giant, expensive pieces of data-storage hardware, has pushed to fill out its portfolio with software.

The Rainfinity deal is EMC's twentieth since the start of 2000.

EMC already has a significant toehold in virtualization through its VMware unit, which was acquired in 2003 and applies the technology to low-cost computer servers.