EMC Gets Two Upgrades; Acquires Online Backup Co. Mozy

EMC Corp. shares are up 1.4% in early pre-market trading Monday after its shares were upgraded both by Bear Stearns and Citigroup, who noted the potential benefits of its 86% ownership in VMware. Citigroup also said VMware's virtualization software could actually be a boon for EMC's storage lineup: "In contrast to more widely held beliefs, we view virtualization as a demand driver for storage. First, there is about $6B of direct attached storage in the market today which to date has been un-addressable by network storage vendors. Virtualization changes this. Second, although ultimately virtualization promises to do more with less, the ability to collaborate, more rapidly deploy applications and, ultimately, usher in new applications presents an attractive backdrop for storage demand," it said in a Sept. 23 research note. Citigroup upped EMC from Hold to Buy, with a $23 price target. Bear Stearns bumped EMC's rating to Outperform from Peer Perform, saying the firm has been "highly effective at finding the 'next big thing' in IT spending, and then growing those nascent businesses through its legendary sales and marketing prowess." Separately, internet blogger TechCrunch reports EMC has acquired online backup provider Mozy for $76 million, citing unnamed sources. Mozy's software backs up computers over the internet on an ongoing basis, using bandwidth not needed by the user. Its main competitor is Carbonite. An official announcement is expected "in the next few weeks."

Sources: Dow Jones, TechCrunch
Commentary: Holy Mozy, EMC Moves In. There Goes The Neighborhood • EMC Corp.'s a Good Way To Play VMware
Stocks/ETFs to watch: EMC, VMW. Competitors: MSFT, HPQ

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Comments

[Jeanne M Ca...:]

Finally, EMC is receiving the upgrades which are long overdue. The market has ignored the significant value that VMware brings to EMC. Acquiring VMware for about $600,000 a short time ago looks like the bargain of the century. The "ultimate" would be spinning it out to us shareholders once the transaction is deemed tax-free.

2007 Sep 24 01:52 PM

[Jeanne M Ca...:]

Whoa! That's $600,000,000. What a difference! Still the bargain of the century, though.

2007 Sep 24 01:57 PM

[ftpuser:]

A professional review of the best business online storage / online backup services can be found at:

backupreview.googlepag.../

2007 Dec 01 10:13 PM