EMC's latest offer for the consumer and small business storage hardware maker breaks down to $3.75 a share for Iomega's 54.8 million shares. The enterprise storage vendor had offered $3.25 a share, or $178.1 million.
In saying it would consider the new unsolicited offer, Iomega said the bid "would reasonably constitute a superior proposal" to an all-stock offer in December. Under that latter deal, Iomega would have acquired China's ExcelStor Group from shareholder Great Wall Technology.
The agreement would have led to a doubling of Iomega's outstanding shares and would have made Great Wall, ExcelStor's parent, a majority shareholder in Iomega. ExcelStor would have continued to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Iomega.
In agreeing to consider EMC's revised offer, Iomega said the two parties are far from sealing the deal. "While Iomega's board of directors has determined that the EMC acquisition proposal would reasonably constitute a superior proposal, it has not determined that a transaction with EMC is superior to the business combination contemplated under the ExcelStor purchase agreement as there are no agreed upon terms for a transaction with EMC," the company said in a statement.
If EMC is successful, the acquisition would expand the vendor's reach into the consumer and small business markets. Iomega makes backup drives, portable high drives, and storage devices attached to networked computers.
Iomega last year launched 1- and 2-terabyte network storage servers. The StorCenter Pro NAS 150d server sports disk drive hot-swap capability. It also is designed to offer users a backup option, along with a secure site for business files, photos, music, and multimedia content. The 1TB model sold for $799, and the 2 TB model for $1,499.