EMC has acquired some of the assets and personnel of Seattle’s SourceLabs and will integrate them into its cloud computing business, the Hopkinton, MA-based company confirmed today. But contrary to news reports over the weekend, EMC has not acquired all of SourceLabs—nor has it acquired the Swik.net open-source documentation project run by SourceLabs, an EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]) spokesperson said.
“At this time, we are not disclosing information on which assets or how many employees” were involved in the transaction, EMC spokesperson Lesley Ogrodnick said today in an e-mail. However, Ogrodnick added that “Swik.net is not part of the acquired assets” and that SourceLabs “continues to operate as a standalone business (not a part of EMC).”
The news of a SourceLabs acquisition by EMC was first reported on Friday by TechFlash, which said it was able to leave a voice mail for former SourceLabs chief architect Will Pugh at EMC’s Bellevue, WA, offices. TechFlash also speculated that EMC had acquired Swik.net. But Matt Asay at Cnet wondered about EMC’s motivation in the deal, writing: “I’m guessing that EMC didn’t buy SourceLabs for Swik.net, given that the company had been contacting potential buyers just a few weeks ago to gauge interest in buying Swik.net, likely because EMC wasn’t interested in that part of SourceLabs’ business.”
Asay turns out to have been on to something. He also speculated that EMC was focused on “core SourceLabs technology.” That includes tools related to automated data management and retrieval, areas that do seem to fit with EMC’s focus—and its expansion into cloud computing, which we have written about extensively, including here and here.
SourceLabs is a venture-backed company that raised $7 million in 2006 from Madrona Venture Group, Ignition Partners, and Index Ventures.
