More M&A ... Nexsan snarfed by ... Imation?

Ok, I didn’t quite see this one coming. Really. Honestly, I’ve not paid much attention to Imation in a fairly long time. I do remember tape drives and systems attached to parallel ports from them. I might even have one in my basement somewhere. Nexsan is an array vendor. For those not in the know, the array business is in a slow motion collapse, dumb arrays and associated storage targets aren’t a growth area. Nexsan has been working to add smarts to its arrays, and like (many) other vendors, was basically reselling Enginio and other hardware (think DDN, BlueArc, …). Imation is more of a consumer products/small business products company. This acquisition isn’t a fit unless Imation is seeking to grow outside of this market. As it turns out, the tape market is also collapsing. But thats another story. I don’t have a clear picture of how this will work, unless Imation is looking to get out of its traditional market role. Which would make sense. Reinvention and rebuilding. As I’ve said before, even in spite of the tax and regulatory implications of the recent cliff deal, I expect M&A; to start going really strong fairly soon. This isn’t so much of a girding for battle as it is a realignment and agility set of plays. And if you look at the terms of the deal, this was mostly cash. Not an acquihire, or if so, one very expensive acquihire. No, this looks like a market entry play, and if anything, I expect many others to do similar things. A number of smaller companies may be snarfed up quite soon.