The acquisition of Dantz Development by EMC Corp is a very small one (it is a cash transaction valued at less than US$50 million), but we think it has a lot of significance for the storage market.
Dantz is a supplier of backup and recovery software for small and mid-size businesses, and the maker of Retrospect, a popular backup application that is sold in retail stores and included with e.g. Maxtor external hard drives.
This acquisition is EMC's first attempt to enter the retail market, and it is a significant first step to get known in the SMB market. Expect EMC to integrate the easy-to-use Dantz products in its own portfolio, and then to upsell higher-priced products to the SMB customers.
All in all, this looks like a smart and pretty inexpensive move by EMC to break into the SMB market via the powerful retail channel.
Please read the EMC Press Release and this NewsFactor article for more info.