Overland Robotizes Optical Storage.

Overland Data, Inc. announced that it has purchased all of the assets related to a CD optical storage robotics technology from a CD robotics automation company. Included among the acquired assets are tooling, production equipment, parts, designs documentation, and software rights. Terms of the transaction and the identity of the seller were not disclosed.

Scott McClendon, Overland Data's president and CEO, said: "The acquisition of this jukebox technology gives Overland the opportunity to leverage our existing investments in DLTtape automated library technology by acquiring a robotics technology that is geared for platter-based media such as DVD. There are enough similarities in the base technologies to enable Overland to adapt its existing robotics manufacturing processes to build a new platter-based product line. This acquisition could speed Overland's entry into new markets. Combined with previous announcements about the use of our VR2 tape encoding technology on SLR tape drives from Tandberg Data and on Travan NS tape drives controlled by Imation Corporation, this acquisition will enable Overland to expand its reach into other segments of the storage marketplace that we don't currently serve. Having access to both tape and optical robotics technologies also opens up some possibilities for next-generation integrated automated storage solutions from Overland."