Both companies provide storage solutions, and both were founded by Moshe Yanai. Diligent is run by chairman and CEO Doron Kempel, while Yanai is a director. The company's technology is focused on de-depulication technology, meaning a technology which allows changes to be stored on one single file, thereby generating significant savings in storage space.
Diligent was spun off from EMC Israel in 2002. The company's investors include EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), which owns 20% of it, as well as Gemini Israel Funds, Accel Partners, Eastward Capital Partners, and Matrix Partners. Diligent raised $47.5 million in three financing rounds.
IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), according toi market sources, is in advanced negotiations to buy Israeli storage start-up Diligent Technologies Corp. for $200 million. This will be IBM's second acquisition of an Israeli start-up, just two months after it acquired XIV Ltd. for $300 million.