EMC-Isilon Acquires Storage Software Partner Likewise

One of the biggest recent acquisitions in the Seattle area is paying some more dividends today. EMC’s Isilon storage division, which was added to the IT behemoth in a $2.25 billion deal two years ago, is now acquiring Bellevue, WA-based Likewise Software.

No price was given in the announcement from Likewise CEO Barry Crist, and in a follow-up e-mail he referred my questions to EMC officials, who I’m still trying to reach. Privately held Likewise’s investors include Bellevue’s Ignition Partners, Silicon Valley’s Trinity Ventures, and Intel Capital.

Likewise last raised venture financing in 2009, when it reported a $10 million Series C round led by those three firms. At that time, Likewise said it had raised a total of $27 million in venture capital.

Likewise provides software that helps big companies and storage vendors sort through and control access to the mountains of data that modern computing generates. In fact, Likewise has been a supplier for Hopkinton, MA-based EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]), and had previous relationships with both Isilon and Data Domain, another company now owned by EMC.

Last year, Likewise said it would focus exclusively on storage software after selling off a different chunk of its business to another company. Following that sale, Likewise said it planned to grow its workforce in the Seattle area by about 25 percent.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.