Iron Mountain to Acquire Connected Corporation
Acquisition Broadens Iron Mountain’s Digital
Solution Portfolio to Support Customer Needs; Solidifies Leadership in
the Online Backup and Recovery Market
October 12, 2004 Boston, MA - Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) today
announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Framingham,
MA-based Connected Corporation in a cash transaction valued at
approximately $117 million. The acquisition builds on Iron Mountain’s
mission to protect its customers’ information and to protect its
customers through compliant information management. Connected is a
technology and market leader in the protection, archiving and recovery
of distributed data.
“Bringing Connected into the Iron Mountain family is reflective of Iron
Mountain’s long-term strategy ‘to go where our customers need us to be’
in the archiving and data protection market,” commented Richard Reese,
chairman and CEO of Iron Mountain. “Traditionally, that has meant
increasing the Company’s geographic footprint for our physical records
management and off-site data protection businesses. Today, that means
helping customers manage and protect all of their information – both
physical and digital – regardless of format or location.”
Reese continued, “This is a logical move for Iron Mountain because it
extends our protection to distributed data, which is a particularly
difficult management challenge and area of vulnerability for our
customers. Our new combination of offerings ensures better information
protection, access, availability and compliance.”
Given today’s regulatory, corporate governance and security climate,
the need to manage and protect business records and information in all
formats and locations is paramount. With as much as 60 percent of
corporate information residing on laptops, desktops and other
edge-of-the-network devices, businesses need the ability to backup,
archive and recover this distributed data. This acquisition is a
natural extension of Iron Mountain’s strategy to expand its digital
solutions and integrate them with its systems for managing physical
information assets. As a result, customers will be able to realize more
value from their information through better access and use; reduce the
cost of storage and management; and at the same time, maintain
compliance with laws and regulations.
“What a smart move. Connected, with its millions of user licenses,
married to the king of all records management players, is a boon for
both companies,” noted Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst,
Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. “It opens up an explosive new market
opportunity for Iron Mountain and lets Connected walk into doors that
it never would have been able to open as a stand-alone player. Iron
Mountain continues to be one consistently impressive deal-maker.”
The addition of Connected’s software products to Iron Mountain’s
portfolio offers further flexibility to customers who would prefer to
in-source online data backup or archiving solutions rather than choose
an outsourced service. Connected is well known for its Connected
DataProtector/PC™ product, an industry-leading desktop and laptop data
protection solution that is offered as both a subscription service and
as licensed software. Currently, Iron Mountain delivers this service to
its customers via a partnership with Connected. The DataProtector
product also supports the backup and recovery of Windows® servers,
which will complement Iron Mountain’s current service offering for
online server backup.
In addition, the Connected ArchiveStore/EM™ software for email
archiving will complement Iron Mountain’s Digital Archives, an
outsourced service designed for managing multiple types of information
assets, including e-mail, statements and digital images.
"Companies are racing to offer a broader value proposition for
information management but most are approaching this from a niche
perspective," said Doug Chandler, program director, Storage and Data
Management Services, IDC. "Iron Mountain and Connected are approaching
this differently than many others, and it is a smart approach. The
combination better addresses both compliance and data protection needs
for customers. Aside from the synergies of the technology and service
offerings, the companies have similar entrepreneurial cultures, and we
expect that this union will further establish Iron Mountain as a leader
in delivering compliant information management."
“Strategic opportunities like this are rare. By joining forces with
Iron Mountain, we gain more resources to deliver on a vision and
roadmap for protection, archiving and recovery of all distributed data,
which will greatly benefit our customers,” said Bob Brennan, chairman
and CEO of Connected Corporation. “This is also a phenomenal
opportunity for our employees to see the broader impact of the
solutions they develop, market and support. It’s a really exciting time
for our company and employees.”
Iron Mountain will acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of
Connected Corporation for total cash consideration of $117 million. For
the six months ended June 30, 2004, Connected Corporation reported
total revenues of approximately $18 million.The transaction has
received the necessary board and shareholder approvals and is subject
only to regulatory review and customary closing conditions. Iron
Mountain expects to complete this transaction in the fourth quarter of
2004. Additional information regarding this transaction will be
provided during the Company's third quarter earnings call on October
28, 2004 and at its 7th Annual Investor Day on November 18, 2004.
About Connected
Connected Corporation is the leading provider of
storage software for automated protection, archiving and recovery of
distributed data. The company's powerful, yet easy-to-use solutions
help customers protect and centrally manage data from desktop and
laptop PCs, Windows servers and email systems, while eliminating costs
and burdens associated with capturing and recovering highly distributed
data. Customers range from mid-size businesses to more than 600 of the
world's largest corporations, including Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, EDS,
EMC, Hewlett-Packard, SAP, Schlumberger and Toyota. The company’s
solutions are offered as a subscription service or as licensed
software. Connected is based in Framingham, Massachusetts, with
multiple U.S. and international offices.
Contact:
Melissa Mahoney
Corporate Communications
Iron Mountain
Phone: 617-535-8310
melissa.mahoney@ironmountain.com
Stephen Golden
Investor Relations
Iron Mountain
Phone: 617-535-4799
sgolden@ironmountain.com