Dell has acquired enterprise email management service MessageOne for $155 million.
MessageOne offers on-demand services for business continuity, archiving and disaster recovery, with a particular focus on email. MessageOne’s Email Management Services (EMS) promises to “eliminate all of the risks of managing email by solving archiving, continuity, and security needs” with a “fully integrated suite of on-demand services” that eliminates email downtime and prevents data loss.
As Alarm Clock points out, the interesting thing about the acquisition is the possible nepotism; MessageOne is owned by Michael Dell’s brother Adam Dell. Although it does seem like a somewhat strange acquisition for Dell, the company has been slowly moving into Internet/ online fields, having acquired EqaulLogic in November 2007.
Wise move, for all. Congrats!
Initial reading made no sense on how this purchase would help Dell in its core competency.
But of course, when it comes to the family maybe they are ready to help each other out!
-Peyton
http://www.techbanyan.com
This is a little odd but I wonder if they are maybe thinking of tying this software into their hardware sales to various government agencies… of course, I could be reading way too much into this but I don’t think the shareholders would appreciate nepotism as they try to turn the business around (which they are successfully doing).
Gov is where the money is… this gives them a rollodex of new (profitable) contacts.
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
they should help each other in order to strive…
and thats the best thing they did merging…
If you look at the acquisitions made by Dell of late and new service offerings you’ll see that Dell is seeking to expand it’s services. I can see the idea of a nepotism thing but I also know the service jives with the overall approach by Dell to compete in services against it’s competitors like HP.
As a bit of background, one of our executives who had a relationship with MessageOne in a former job brought this deal to the table as the best fit for our services strategy. (As Russ noted above, we are actively pursuing services-oriented acquisitions.) Michael Dell, knowing that related-party interests existed, recused himself from the process. Our board also took steps to ensure the transaction was handled and approved objectively and independently. Michael and Susan Dell have said that the proceeds that they and their children’s trust receive from the acquisition will be donated to charity. Additional background can be found at http://dellone2one.com/one2one.....45559.aspx
shame on the message one !!
What do you think if you’re one of the board of directors?