Enterprise data storage systems developer ScaleIO founders will earn an estimated $60 million from the sale of the company to EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC). Details of the acquisition were not disclosed but it is believed to be for about $200 million in cash.
The company was founded in 2011 by five veterans of the storage sector: CEO Boaz Palgi, Erez Webman, Lior Bahat, Eran Borovik, and Erez Ungar. $12 million was invested in ScaleIO, in a financing round completed in late 2012, from the Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and Greylock Partners funds, joining EMC, which invested in the company at its inception, and a number of private investors, among them Check Point chairman Amnon Bar Lev, who serves as chairman of ScaleIO, and Frank Slootman, formerly CEO of Data Domain, which EMC bought in 2009. This left the founders with a 30% stake in the company and thus earning of just over $60 million from the exit. The venture capital funds can expect a tenfold return on their investment.
For the founders of ScaleIO this is by no means their first exit. Some of them were involved in Topio's acquisition by NetApp in 2010, and led XtremIO, which was sold just last year to EMC for $430 million. They were also involved in Storwize, which was sold to IBM in 2010.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 14, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013