End of Two Historical Storage Companies

The names of Overland and Tandberg will not immediately disappear but the two companies are now under the umbrella of Sphere 3D that acquired Overland that formerly acquired Tandberg.

Overland and Tandberg are not historically the oldest storage companies but two of the oldest. [The first storage memory was the punch card designed in 1881 by Herman Hollerith, who would later form IBM.]

Here we publish a brief history of these two firms that have profoundly marked the history of storage and especially the tape industry in the past decades.

Milestones of Overland Storage, formerly Overland Data

Most recent business: disk-based data protection solutions, including NAS and SAN products and solutions, as well as tape automation systems, including tape and VTL systems, designed for SMBs.

1980: Founded as Overland Data in San Diego, CA, originally manufacturing IBM-compatible 9-track reel-to-reel tape drives
1992:  Acquired Mountain Engineering in 3480 tape cartridge drives
2000: Acquired for $3 million Tecmar and its line of Travan tape drives including WangTek and WangDAT brands
2001: Transfers its SLR autoloader activity to Tandberg for $1 million
2003: Acquired Okapi Software in D2D backup appliance for $5 million
2004: Historical record of $238 million in revenue for year ended in June
2005: Acquired Zetta Systems in primary disk storage subsystem for $9 million
2006: $209 million in revenue for FY year ended June, and then yearly sales declined without interruption in double digit up to now
2008: Acquired some IPs of Tavata Software (de-dupe software) for $1.25 million
2008: Acquired assets of Adaptec, Snap NAS, for $3.6 million
2009: Eric Kelly, board member since 2007 and the boss of its recently acquired Snap NAS, becoming CEO of Overland Storage, replacing Vern LoForti
2010: Acquired MaxiScale in clustered file system
2010: First iSCSI SAN
2013: Revenue of $62.6 million for last known fiscal year ended June 2013
2014: Acquired Tandberg Data Holdings S.à.r.l. in tape and disk systems for backup and DR
2014: Revenue of $41.5 million for nine months ended March 31, 2014 with net loss of $15.5 million
2014: Acquired by Sphere 3D for $81 million

Tandberg’s Storage’s Milestones of Tandberg Storage, formerly Tandberg Data

Most recent businesses: storage and data protection solutions for SMBs, including disk-based appliances, tape-based solutions including drives, autoloaders, libraries and media, removable disk and software for backup, archiving, and de-dupe.

1933: Tandberg Radio Factory founded in Oslo, Norway, by Vebjørn Tandberg.
1972: Produces its first tape drives, the TDC 3000, a start-stop reel-to-reel unit
1979: Tandberg Data A/S established on the ashes of Tandberg Radiofabrik A/S in audio tape devices after a bankrupt and the suicide of Vebjørn Tandberg
1981: Becomes a founding member of QIC committee
1982: Produces its first QIC drive and was later the only European tape drive manufacturer
1984: Tandberg Data going public
1990: Wearnes Technology from Singapore becoming main shareholder replacing Siemens
2001: Acquired Overland’s SLR tape autoloader business for $1 million
2002: Acquired Land-5 and its RAID and NAS technology, then becoming InoStor
2003: Tandberg Storage and its subsidiary O-Mass, focusing exclusively on tape drives, split and became separate companies, listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. Tandberg Data is the largest owner of Tandberg Storage with 33% stake.
2005: Acquired Computer Design, in RAID-protected iSCSI appliance for $6.5 million
2006: Acquired Exabyte’s tape drives and automation products for $28 million
2008: Tandberg Storage, with the initial goal to develop a LTO-2 drive within a half-height form factor, merged with Tandberg Data
2008: Pat Clarke being promoted CEO of Tandberg Data.
2009: Tandberg Data ASA and Tandberg Storage ASA filed for bankruptcy and later Tandberg Data announced that the new holding company, TAD Holding AS, was established, owning all global Tandberg Data subsidiaries, including Tandberg Storage ASA. Cyrus Capital is the majority shareholder and owner of the newly established company Tandberg Data GmbH headquartered in Dortmund, Germany.
2011: Acquired assets of ProStor Systems (RDX) for $17.8 million
2013: Revenue of $62.6 million for year ended June 2013
2014: Acquired by Overland