Tape industry player Quantum Corp. announced today its acquisition of Benchmark Storage Innovations Inc. for $11 million and up to 15 million shares of stock.
Quantum, of Milpitas, Calif., makes high-end tapes, tape automation hardware and network-attached storage. The company already owns 20 percent of Benchmark, a Boulder, Colo., maker of low- and midrange tape hardware.
Quantum also announced that it is outsourcing its tape manufacturing to Jabil Circuit Inc., of St. Petersburg, Fla. Jabil will take over Quantums plant in Penang, Malaysia, and will hire most of the current Quantum employees there, officials said.
“Reinforcing the strength of our tape business was essential … that was priority No. 1,” Rick Belluzzo, the recently hired CEO of Quantum, and a former president of Microsoft Corp., told eWEEK.
The decision to expand Quantums tape portfolio was made long before Belluzzo joined, he said. How the products will be branded and how much money the outsourcing moves will save Quantum havent been determined.
“Within the next few weeks Ill be able to lay out all the priorities,” Belluzzo said. Quantum will have a corporate restructuring later this year, he added.
Quantum will pay the Benchmark equity holders 13.1 million shares when the deal closes and 1.9 million shares during the first year after that, if milestones are met, in addition to the $11 million.