News

posted on 12 May 2008 10:21

Israeli media outlet Globes reports a Barron's analyst saying Exanet could be bought by Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

Exanet is an Israeli startup, founded in 2001, producing clustered and scalable network-attached storage (NAS). In March it introduced its latest ExaStore Clustered NAS 2008 using quad-core Xeons and having a global name space supportive of billions of files.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers, a combination of Fujitsu and Siemens computing operations, is a full line IT systems hardware and software supplier based in Germany. It does not currently have a product like the Exanet one in its range.

When asked to respond to this a Fujitsu Siemens Computers' spokesperson said: "FSC does not comment on rumor or speculation."

The report quotes Exanet chairman Giora Yaron saying: "Exanet has relations with many companies, and we need marketing sources that we currently lack. For this reason, we're in talks with various parties."

Exanet is funded by venture capital and the prospect of crystalising their investments as a wave of Israeli high-tech storage acquisitions take place, such as XIV, Diligent and FilesX by IBM, must be appealing.

The company has raised $80-90 million in funding rounds and replaced its CEO in October last year to better lead the company through a growth phase. Growth as a stand-alone entity could be coming to an end as the company shops itself to potential purchasers. The target price could be $200-250 million or more.

^{[Chris Mellor.]}