Xyratex has reached a tentative agreement with Ario Data Networks to acquire key assets from the RAID and JBOD controller startup.
After shedding its RAID and bridge businesses, Ario Data plans to shift its focus to storage systems, a market it entered earlier this year, according to Ario marketing vice president Mark Pollard.
UK-based Xyratex said it will acquire intellectual property, capital assets and skilled resources from Ario, including “a seasoned team of professionals that have a significant amount of technical experience and development capabilities.”
Ario Data is based in San Jose, Calif., where Xyratex has its principal U.S. office.
“Integration of the specific skills and IP from Ario will strengthen Xyratex’s strong lineup of storage technologies and expand our resource expertise,” Todd Gresham, Xyratex’s executive vice president for storage and network systems, said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming those individuals from the Ario team and believe this transaction complements our global strategy to provide market leading technology solutions to our OEM customers.”
Xyratex is acquiring “certain RAID code as well as the development team that has developed that code, so we get the technology and the experienced team to continue our R&D efforts in this area,” said Xyratex investor relations official Brad Driver. “This will allow us to accelerate our efforts in getting new software technology to our customers. We also eliminate the risk of our competitors getting a hold of this important technology, so there is a defensive aspect to the acquisition as well that is very important.”
Xyratex will also acquire Ario Data’s bridge technologies, such as its Fibre Channel to SATAJBOD controllers, but is not acquiring its storage blade technology.
Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst at StorageIO, said “the link-up with Xyratex is a good one in that Xyratex can … integrate some of their controller technology into their previous acquisition of nStor. This also helps Xyratex diversify their revenue stream across more vendors.”
The deal, expected to close on or about Dec. 29, is contingent upon a technical evaluation and due diligence, among other conditions.
Ario Data has raised $44 million in funding to date.
