Dot Hill Systems, a provider of entry level and midrange external RAID storage arrays for OEMs, open storage partners and system integrators, has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Cloverleaf Communications, a privately held software company that provides heterogeneous storage virtualisation and unified storage technologies.
Dot Hill said that the acquisition intended to broaden its reach into the storage virtualisation, data management services software and unified storage markets.
Cloverleaf’s administrative headquarters are in Woodbury, New York and its research and development facilities are in Israel. Its intelligent storage network software products are designed to work heterogeneously across all vendors’ storage arrays and support a common suite of advanced data management services.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dot Hill will purchase the company for cash of $2.5m plus approximately $9.5m in shares of unregistered Dot Hill common stock based on the 30 day trailing average closing price of the common stock as of December 31, 2009. As part of the transaction, a number of Cloverleaf’s founders, including Elic Yavor and Yosi Klein, will be joining Dot Hill Systems.
Dana Kammersgard, president and chief executive officer of Dot Hill, said: The addition of Cloverleaf’s products to the Dot Hill portfolio complements our existing storage array and software offerings while extending our reach into adjacent and emerging markets such as cloud based storage and storage virtualisation.
“Cloverleaf had invested over $43m dollars and nine years of development in these products that provide data management services such as clustered virtualisation, synchronous and asynchronous replication, thin provisioning, FCDP and automated storage tiering across a mixed and diverse storage array base. The iSN products specifically address the complex, heterogeneous requirements of most end user environments.
The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of Dot Hill Systems and the principal shareholders of Cloverleaf Communications. The transaction is expected to close by the middle of January 2010 and is subjected to customary closing conditions. The transaction does not require the approval of Dot Hill’s shareholders.
