By Lisa Burroughes, 14 January 1999 16:57
NEWS Storage maker Iomega has said it plans to buy bankrupt rival SyQuest's technology for $9.5m. SyQuest declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 17 November, after a prolonged period of poor sales and loss of market share to Iomega. The buyout also puts an end to a patent suit filed by Iomega over SyQuest's SyJet and SparQ product ranges. For Iomega this rules out the possibility of the lawsuit continuing with another potential buyer of the technology. It also prevents rivals such as Seagate or Western Digital from buying SyQuest's products themselves. Ed Bateman, Business Unit manager for components at storage distributor, Ideal Hardware, said: "There are two main reasons it makes sense for Iomega to buy it; first because they value the technology that SyQuest produces, and second, because they are worried about another company buying it." Bateman added: "It reduces the amount of competition in the market. With SyQuest gone, Iomega is now the market leader."
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below