Oracle this morning announced that it has agreed to buy Pillar Data Systems, a privately-held provider of SAN Block I/O storage systems based in San Jose, California, which is said to serve nearly 600 customers across 24 countries.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
An interesting purchase, particularly since Pillar Data Systems is majority-owned by Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison through his venture capital firm Tako Ventures. According to a 2005 CRN article, Ellison invested over $150 million in the business.
It’s worth nothing that Oracle claims the evaluation and negotiation of the transaction was led by an independent committee of Oracle’s board of directors.
Also, the transaction is structured as a 100 percent earn-out with no up-front payment.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in July 2011, exactly a decade after Pillar Data Systems was founded.
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On a sidenote: kudos to Michael Romley, who predicted this transaction would (or should) occur back in September 2010.
