Dear Iomega (NYSE: IOM),
I know we didn't keep in touch the way we promised to -- but I hear you're getting married! Wow. Congrats. I guess EMC (NYSE: EMC) popped the question -- again -- and you figured it's time to get hitched before you find yourself pajamaed and gray in a house full of cats.
I can't say I blame you. When EMC and a consortium of Chinese storage companies entered into that bidding war over you, I bet that was a refreshing surprise since your dashing good looks started to fade years ago, and your signature Zip drives became less and less relevant.
EMC came out ahead, didn't it, after it sweetened the first, rejected offer from $3.25 a share to $3.85 a share. The $213 million deal isn't the same kind of dowry you might have commanded when you were a Wall Street pinup, but we can't always go out on top.
I don't usually check in on old girlfriends, but we had such good times together! Anyone who was around Fooldom in the early days -- as I have been, since 1995 -- knew all about you.
Iomega came to define The Motley Fool's visionary spirit. Most non-Fool investors didn't grasp the significance of the Zip disk when it first came out. They couldn't appreciate the revolutionary importance of hugely enhanced data storage capacity, even with those floppy disks and lugging around clunky external hard drives.
The community of Fooldom was into it. Channel checks from all over the country would pour in from folks checking on local inventory levels. One resourceful community member even counted cars at the company's manufacturing plant over the weekend.
Iomega was one of the earliest winners in the original real money portfolio, run live on the site by founders David and Tom Gardner. Even if other early victors like Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), and Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL achieved greater overall success, Iomega was always the textbook example of how the Internet can make a community of investors better, a dozen years before the birth of Motley Fool CAPS.
Fools got in before the rest of the market. They also moved on before the rest of the market caught on that the company's best days were over, as snazzier storage like Web-based backup and SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK) flash drives gained traction.
EMC is buying more than just a shoebox of memories. Iomega still produces quality storage products like its REV backup drives. This isn't a pity party. It's a marriage, even if the paparazzi are shutterbugging it elsewhere these days.
I wish you nothing but the best, Iomega! But don't send me an invitation to the wedding. I had you in your prime. Let me remember you as the standout you were.
