Deal Strengthens Sun’s Competitive Position in One of the Fastest Growing, Most Dynamic Segments of Storage Market
Sun Microsystems,Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase all intellectual property rights of Procom Technology, Inc. relating to Procom’s Network Attached Storage (NAS) offerings in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $50M.
“The entire storage marketplace is clearly moving toward industry-standard platforms and operating systems,” said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer, Sun Microsystems.“As a provider of both, with our leading volume platforms and the Solaris operating system, Sun is uniquely positioned to leverage Procom’s technology to drive down the cost of NAS appliances for customers, while aiming to drive margin opportunities for Sun.”
Procom, a provider of a broad range of NAS storage systems,and Sun have had an existing software licensing agreement in place since April 2004. As a result of that agreement, Procom technology is already embedded and currently shipping within the Sun StorEdge 5000 Family of NAS Appliances. With this new agreement, Sun will own the intellectual property rights relating to this technology and gain additional engineering expertise, enabling it to build future NAS and next-generation file-based storage systems much faster and more cost-effectively.
“Sun’s NAS offerings serve as the central building blocks of some of our most compelling solutions, including the Sun StorEdge 5310 Compliance Archiving System which helps customers comply with government regulations and data integrity requirements,” said Mark Canepa, executive vice president of network storage, Sun Microsystems. “Bolstering our NAS portfolio with the acquisition of Procom’s technology reflects our ongoing commitment to the storage market.”
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and the approval of Procom’s shareholders. The acquisition is expected to close in June 2005. More details about the acquisition will be available at this time.
This Press Releases contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding future results or financial performance of Sun Microsystems, Inc., including statements relating to the acquisition of certain assets of Procom,strengthening Sun’s position in the storage market, enabling Sun to build future NAS and next-generation file-based storage systems much faster and more cost-effectively, the acquisition of Procom’s assets in an all cash transaction, and the expected close of the acquisition in June 2005. Such statements are just predictions and involve risks and uncertainties such that actual results and performance may differ materially. Factors that might cause such a difference include the closing of the acquisition, successful integration of Procom’s assets and employees into Sun, building future NAS and next-generation file-based storage systems, Sun’s inability to compete successfully in the highly competitive and rapidly changing marketplace, failure to retain key employees, cancellation or delay of projects, increased competition and continued adverse general economic conditions in the U.S. and internationally. These and other risks are detailed from time to time in Sun’s periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Sun’s annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2004 and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ended September 26,2004, December 26, 2004 and March 27, 2005.
About Procom Technology
Irvine,Calif.-based Procom Technology has designed and produced innovative storage solutions since 1987 and is a value leader in enterprise-class NAS appliances that deliver industry-leading performance, manageability and availability. This value leadership is based on a unique combination of innovative appliance software,industry-standard hardware platforms, and proven high-availability and mirroring software. More information is available, toll free, at800-800-8600; via e-mail at info@procom.com;or on the Web at www.procom.com.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com
Sun,Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java, N1 and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunMicrosystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.