Iomega (later LenovoEMC) produced external, portable, and networked data storage products. Established in the 1980s in Roy, Utah, United States, Iomega sold more than 410 million digital storage drives and disks, including the Zip drive floppy disk system. Formerly a public company, it was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2008, and then by Lenovo, which rebranded the product line as LenovoEMC, until discontinuation in 2018.
History
Iomega started in Roy, Utah, U.S. in 1980 and moved its headquarters to San Diego, California in 2001. For many years, it was a significant name in the data storage industry. Iomega's most famous product, the Zip drive, offered relatively large amounts of storage on portable, high-capacity floppy disks. The original Zip disk's 100MB capacity was a huge improvement over the decades-long standard of 1.44MB standard floppy disks. The Zip drive became a common internal and external peripheral for IBM-compatible and Macintosh personal computers. However, Zip drives sometimes failed after a short period, which failure was commonly referred to as the "click of death." This problem, combined with competition from CD-RW drives, caused Zip drive sales to decline dramatically, even after introducing larger 250MB and 750MB versions. Iomega eventually launched a CD-RW drive.
Without the revenue from its proprietary storage disks and drives, Iomega's sales and profits declined considerably. Iomega's stock price, which was over $100 at its height in the 1990s, fell to around $2 in the mid-2000s. Trying to find a niche, Iomega released devices such as the HipZip MP3 player, the FotoShow Digital Image Center, and numerous external hard drives, optical drives, and NAS products. None of these products were successful.
In 2012, reporter Vincent Verweij of Dutch broadcaster Katholieke Radio Omroep revealed that at least 16,000 Iomega NAS devices were publicly exposing their users' files on the Internet. This was due to Iomega having disabled password security by default. KLM, ING Group, and Ballast Nedam all had confidential material leaked in this manner. Iomega USA acknowledged the problem and said future models (starting February 2013) would have password security enabled by default. The company said it would clearly instruct users about the risks of unsecured data.
Acquisition by EMC
On April 8, 2008, EMC Corporation announced plans to acquire Iomega for . The acquisition was completed in June 2008, making Iomega the SOHO/SMB arm of EMC. EMC kept the Iomega brand name alive with products such as the StorCenter NAS line, ScreenPlay TV Link adapter, and v.Clone virtualization software.
Joint venture with Lenovo: LenovoEMC
In 2013, EMC (before the Dell purchase) formed a joint venture with Chinese technology company Lenovo, named LenovoEMC, that took over Iomega's business. LenovoEMC rebranded all of Iomega's products under its name. LenovoEMC designed products for small and medium-sized businesses that could not afford enterprise-class data storage. LenovoEMC was a part of a broader partnership between the two companies announced in August 2012. The partnership also included an effort to develop x86-based servers and allowing Lenovo to act as an OEM for some EMC hardware. LenovoEMC was a part of Lenovo's Enterprise Products Group before it ultimately dissolved with the EMC Dell aquisition.
In November 2013, Lenovo announced the construction of a research and development facility near São Paulo, Brazil. This facility was dedicated to enterprise software and supporting LenovoEMC's development of high-end servers and cloud storage. Construction would cost $100 million and about 100 would be employed at the facility. It would be located in the University of Campinas Science and Technology Park, about 60 miles from São Paulo. Later in 2016 the Brazil facility was downscaled and relocated elsewhere.
1980–1999
1980: April 1, Iomega Founded
1982: Released First Bernoulli Box Drive (10MB) 1987: September, Shipped first Bernoulli Box II model (20 MB) 1988: Released Bernoulli Box 44 MB drive 1991: July, Shipped Bernoulli Box 90 MB drive 1992: October, Shipped Bernoulli MultiDisk 150 drive. 1994: October, Shipped Bernoulli 230 drive. 1995: January, Shipped Iomega Ditto Tape Drive 1995: March, Released Zip 100MB Drive 1995: December, Shipped Jaz Drive 1GB Drive 1997: June, Announced Buz Multimedia Producer 1997: November, Unveiled Clik! 40MB Drive 1998: February, Shipped Jaz 2GB Drive 1998: December, Shipped Zip 250MB Drive 1999: Shipped First Internal CD-RW Drive