Symantec Completed Acquisition of Online Backup Provider SwapDrive

In June 2008, Symantec Corp. completed the acquisition of Swapdrive, Inc., a leading provider of online backup and management software and services. SwapDrive companies Backup.com and WhaleMail.com are also now part of Symantec. SwapDrive’s market-leading solutions complement Symantec’s Norton consumer portfolio and strategy, by providing data backup and management solutions to help customers work and play freely – with confidence – in a connected world.

Comments

That's the only information that Symantec gave about its new acquisition.

Here are the comments of David Friend, CEO and co-founder of online data backup company Carbonite, a competitor of Swapdrive.

Online backup is continuing to emerge mainstream, as illustrated by another old industry giant gobbling up an established online backup player.

Symantec acknowledged the truth of reports yesterday that it acquired SwapDrive and its companies, Backup.com and WhaleMail.com, leaving Carbonite as one of the last-standing large independent online backup services.

Frankly, I was surprised that the price was so low, given how hot this market is. However, that's the danger of being a white label provider to someone like Symantec. It's like the lawnmower company that sells 80 percent of its output to a major retailer. One day they come along and make you 'an offer you can't refuse,' so to speak.

In the past year, Mozy has been acquired by EMC and Arsenal Digital was acquired by IBM. In previous years Connected and LiveVault were acquired by Iron Mountain, and EVault was acquired by Seagate Technology.

The online backup space is hot and everyone is suddenly interested in getting into the game. Symantec realized you can protect your PC with antivirus, anti-spyware, and so forth, but the most important thing to protect is your data. Only online backup provides that protection. No anti-anything can keep your hard drive from crashing or keep a burglar from stealing your computer.

Carbonite recently passed its 200 millionth file restored and has backed up more than three billion files for consumers and small businesses.

One by one our competitors have been snapped up by big old companies and we are standing alone as the top independent backup provider. We're poised to become the trusted brand in online backup, much like Norton emerged for anti-virus. With a simple and trustworthy product, we are in a position to continue our rapid growth.

Our comments:
According to U.S. sources, SwapDrive recorded yearly revenues of $22 million for $13 million in profit. Do you think that $123 million is not a fair acquisition price?