Iron Mountain buys LiveVault

Source: buzjournals.com

Iron Mountain buys LiveVault

Iron Mountain Inc. is spending $42 million to acquire the remaining shares of LiveVault Corp., which provides online data backup and recovery services. Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM - News) already owned a 14 percent stake in LiveVault; the complete deal is valued at $50 million.

Boston-based Iron Mountain leases space in warehouses to store corporate records. In the third quarter, Iron Mountain earned $36 million on $526 million in revenue, and had $44 million in cash and liquidity on Sept. 30, and access to credit facilities.

Digital data protection has been Iron Mountain’s fastest growing segment since its acquisition a year ago of Connected Corp. of Framingham, Mass. In the third quarter, it had $84 million in revenue from the segment, up 20 percent from a year ago.

Marlborough, Mass.-based LiveVault says more than 2,000 companies use its services to protect computer workstations and servers. Competitors include EVault of Emeryville, Calif., which had $15 million in revenue last year from 5,000 customers; and AmeriVault Inc. in Waltham.

Founded as Network Integrity in 1992, Livevault took its current name in 2001 after a recapitalization. LiveVault has disclosed $25 million in financing since 2001 and registered funding a year ago without disclosing the amount. The company did not disclose how much total financing it received before recapitalizing in 2001, but it announced $6.5 million in financing in 1999.

After cutting its workforce by two thirds to 40 people in 2003, LiveVault is back up to 60 employees. Iron Mountain recently reported laying off 23 people from companies it has acquired this year, paying $284,000 in severance, and did not immediately specify whether it is planning reductions at LiveVault.