Imation Buys Nexsan For $120M To Beef Up Its SME Enterprise Storage Business
Some consolidation in the world of enterprise storage to kick off the new year: the storage and data security giant Imation Corp. has acquired Nexsan Corporation, a specialist in disk-based storage systems …
Context & Ripple Effects
Imation’s purchase follows an earlier storage-platform land grab: Dell’s $1.4 billion EqualLogic acquisition showed that established hardware suppliers were willing to buy specialist storage capabilities rather than build them internally. Imation is applying the same logic at a smaller scale, adding Nexsan’s disk-based systems to its enterprise-storage and data-security position.
The deal was broadly carried by outlets including Reuters, Bloomberg, ZDNet and VentureBeat, underscoring that a $120 million transaction was read as a meaningful consolidation move in enterprise storage.
First-order effects
- Imation gains Nexsan’s disk-based storage products and customers, broadening the portfolio it can sell into small and midsize enterprise deployments.
- Nexsan becomes part of Imation rather than an independent storage specialist, shifting product, sales and channel decisions to its acquirer.
Second-order effects
- Specialist storage vendors targeting SMEs face a larger Imation offering that combines Nexsan systems with Imation’s existing storage and data-security business.
- Imation’s resellers and enterprise customers gain a single supplier relationship for the acquired disk-storage line, raising the importance of portfolio integration and support continuity.
Third-order effects
- Together with Dell’s EqualLogic deal, the transaction points to enterprise storage consolidating around larger vendors that acquire focused product capabilities.
- The pattern puts a premium on whether acquired specialists can retain differentiated products and customer relationships after being folded into broader portfolios.
The trend: Enterprise-storage incumbents are using acquisitions to assemble broader portfolios from specialist technologies and customer bases.