Obscure start-up XIV to be sold to IBM for $300-350m: Since inception only $3 million dollars have been invested in the company, without VC involvement.

Dec 30, 2007 (Globes - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- IBM | charts | news | PowerRating -- Sources inform "Globes" that IBM is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli start-up XIV for $300-350 million. The grid storage systems developer was founded in 2002 and currently employs 35 people. Since inception only $3 million dollars have been invested in the company, which came from chairman Moshe Yanai, formerly of storage solutions giant EMC, and private investors.

Since its founding in 2002, the company has remained discreet, with a single page website giving its contact information and a four line description of its products. Aside from very few interviews by Yanai, there has been minimal mention of the company in the press and even a Google search does not provide much information.

XIV has developed what seems to be a market-changing technology which will alter the way storage technologies have been functioning for several decades.

Traditionally, the most critical information (such as bank accounts, client information and multiple essential variables to the organization) must be stored on tier 1 hardware, the highest quality and also highest price hardware. This means that a sudden influx of customers to an organization can require very large expenditures to scale up the tier 1 hardware required to manage customer data.

XIV has developed a system which proposes to change this work method and enable the same instantaneous availability and reliability of information using grid technology on significantly less expensive hardware.

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