ROY, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 1999--Iomega Corporation (NYSE:IOM), a leader in smart, portable storage solutions, today announced that it has sold certain assets of its award-winning Ditto(R) 2GB and Ditto Max(TM) tape products line, to Tecmar Technologies International Inc. (TTI, OSE: SMB), a leader in the fast emerging Travan NS(TM) tape storage industry.
Under the terms of the agreement, Tecmar will pay Iomega a total of $3 million for the rights to Iomega's Ditto(R) 2GB and Ditto Max(TM) family of products, which includes the 10GB Ditto Max Pro and the 7GB Ditto Max drives. Tecmar has acquired intellectual property and exclusive Ditto product rights including certain software; media intellectual property product rights; tooling, jigs and dies owned by Iomega; various equipment; the Ditto brand name for tape and tape-related products, packaging rights, product images, logos, etc. Iomega received an exclusive license to the Ditto trademark outside of tape and tape-related products and retained its "one-step" icon. No Iomega facilities or employees are transferring to Tecmar in connection with this transaction.
"Tecmar's acquisition of Iomega's Ditto tape division bodes well for future products," said Bob Amatruda, senior analyst for tape and removable storage at IDC. "Tecmar will offer the Ditto line the necessary investment towards the development of higher capacity and performance tape drives."
"The portable storage market has changed. We've seen our Zip and Jaz drives rapidly replace personal tape storage," said Jodie K. Glore, Iomega's chief executive officer and president. "This sale benefits both companies and all of our customers. It is a strategic asset sale for Iomega, which will allow us to focus on our core Zip, Jaz and Clik! branded portable storage solutions. Plus, Tecmar's roadmap for the Ditto line is in the network storage market, which is their area of expertise. We will work closely with Tecmar to make this transition seamless for Ditto 2GB and Ditto Max users."
"With over three million units installed, Iomega has obviously been very successful with this product line," said Ernest Wassmann, Tecmar's president and chief executive officer. "The acquisition of the Ditto Max brand gives us a strong entry into the price/capacity segment of the network storage market. The network storage market is composed of SOHO, workgroup and traditional departmental server products and is roughly divided evenly into the price/capacity market on the low end and the price/performance market on the high end. Tecmar has a dominant position in the price/performance segment, and the new Ditto line will form the basis for capture of the price/capacity segment as well."
Iomega will continue to sell their current Ditto finished goods inventory for three months following closing. After which, Tecmar will buy Iomega's remaining finished goods inventory. Iomega will provide warranty support for its Ditto 2GB and Ditto Max products until warranties expire, and technical support for Ditto products sold by Iomega, and will sell existing Ditto cartridges for a period of time. Tecmar will provide out-of-warranty service for Ditto 2GB and Ditto Max tape drive customers.
About Tecmar
Tecmar Technologies International Inc. (TTI, OSE:SMB) is a leading provider of high performance tape storage solutions for the networking storage environments. Headquartered in Longmont, Colorado, Tecmar has sales offices in the United States, Singapore, and Europe. Tecmar markets its products worldwide through OEMs and computer system resellers, offering a wide range of tape storage systems, media and libraries. Tecmar is a publicly traded company on the SMB list of the Oslo Stock Exchange. Tecmar's World Wide Web address is http://www.tecmar.com.
About Iomega
Iomega Corporation (NYSE:IOM) manufactures and markets the award-winning Zip(R), Jaz(R) Clik!(TM) and Ditto(R) drives and disks that help people to organize, manage, create, exchange and share their important information. Used in homes, businesses, government, education and by creative professionals everywhere, Iomega storage solutions are the enabling technologies preferred by millions. The Company can be reached at 1-800-MY-STUFF (800-697-8833), or on the Web at http://www.iomega.com.
Iomega, Zip, Jaz, Ditto and the stylized "i" logo are registered trademarks, and Clik! is a trademark of Iomega Corporation. All other products and brand names are the property of their respective owners. For maximum reliability, use only genuine Zip disks featuring the genuine Zip 100 or 250 symbols in your Zip drive.
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