Boston-based Iron Mountain, the data management and protection company, said today it is selling its online backup and recovery, digital archiving, and eDiscovery businesses to San Francisco- and Cambridge, U.K.-based Autonomy for $380 million in cash. The deal is expected to close within 45 to 60 days.
Iron Mountain (NYSE: [[ticker:IRM]]), founded in 1951, is a stalwart of the Boston-area data storage ecosystem. The company lost money in 2010 (it was profitable in 2009), despite revenues of more than $3 billion. Last month, former CEO Bob Brennan resigned and was replaced by Richard Reese, the company’s chairman (and former CEO from 1981 to 2008).
Autonomy (LSE: AU.L) is a growing business software firm that is increasingly focused on helping companies manage stacks of e-mails, phone calls, and documents in the Internet cloud. The firm, which was founded in the U.K. and also has a Boston office, posted revenues of $870 million in 2010 and has been profitable.
Author: Gregory T. Huang
Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003.
Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
View all posts by Gregory T. Huang