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Quantum to buy tape rival Certance

Data storage tape company will pay $60 million in cash.

Ed Frauenheim Former Staff Writer, News
Ed Frauenheim covers employment trends, specializing in outsourcing, training and pay issues.
Ed Frauenheim

Data storage tape company Quantum on Wednesday said it will pay $60 million in cash to acquire rival tape technology developer Certance. The purchase price excludes the distribution to the sellers of up to $34 million from Certance's balance sheet, Quantum said.

Certance developed LTO Ultrium format with partners IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Quantum, the creator of DLTtape technology, already sells LTO Ultrium-format drives in its tape automation systems. "As a newly combined $1 billion company building on Quantum's and Certance's complementary strengths, we will offer the industry's broadest portfolio of tape and disk systems for backup, recovery and archive," Quantum CEO Rick Belluzzo said in a statement.