Accretive acquisition adds advanced technology
and expertise
Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ:ANY), a containerization, virtualization,
and data management solutions provider, today announced that HVE
ConneXions, LLC, and Unified ConneXions, Inc. (collectively, “UCX”)
will join the Sphere 3D family of companies.
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Sphere 3D has signed a definitive agreement to
acquire HVE (“Hybrid Virtualization Engine”) ConneXions, a hybrid
cloud technology company focused on converged and hyperconverged
infrastructure, along with its sister company, Unified ConneXions,
Inc., which provides expert, professional, and IT services to
corporate, government, and educational institutions. By
adding UCX’s world-class products, technologies, professional
services and engineering talent, Sphere 3D will expand its
virtualization practice as well as enhance its ability to
accelerate the delivery of hybrid cloud solutions to
customers. The acquisition is subject to customary closing
conditions and is anticipated to close before January 31, 2017.
Transaction Highlights
- The combined virtualization revenue of HVE and UCX represented
over $7 million for calendar year 2016.
- Will help accelerate Company’s path to profitability
- Expected to be accretive in first quarter of 2017
- Will expand virtualization market share in education,
healthcare and other key verticals
- Will add significant engineering talent to support channel
partners and customers through advanced professional services and
support capabilities
Sphere 3D and UCX share the architectural design
philosophy that next-generation virtualization and storage
solutions require distributed workloads to achieve the fastest
performance while maintaining flexible and cost-effective
scalability. In addition, both companies share a common vision that
a mix of virtual desktops and container based application delivery
is critical to address the increasing demand for virtual workspace
environments.
UCX is based in the metropolitan area of Dallas,
Texas, and maintains three facilities including a 20,000 square
foot integration center in Plano, Texas, corporate headquarters in
Dallas, which includes a network operation center (“NOC”) and a
data center, and a sales and services office located in Waxahachie,
TX. The UCX engineers support customers’ IT initiatives by
providing strategic, architectural, operational, and implementation
planning related to the customers’ entire IT and network
infrastructure. In addition to each next generation appliance
that the UCX team engineers and deploys, they also provide
proactive 24x7x365 monitoring services for those appliances under
maintenance service contracts. The UCX services team has the
ability to work with customers either onsite or remotely, and is
certified in a wide range of technologies that include Microsoft,
VMware, Citrix, NVIDIA, and various networking technologies. Its
highly trained and skilled virtualization engineers have a broad
range of experience and technical expertise, which has allowed UCX
to differentiate itself by offering both exceptional solutions and
services to partners and customers.
Joseph L. O’Daniel, President and CEO of Unified
ConneXions, will take on the new role of President of
Virtualization and Professional Services for Sphere 3D. Chris
Cunningham, Vice President and CFO of Unified ConneXions, will take
on the new role of Senior Vice President of Business Operations and
Professional Services. David Harmon, President of HVE, will
become Vice President of Virtualization.
In addition to the aforementioned new
virtualization team, the company has moved to optimize the focus of
the storage team and is pleased to announce that Randy Gast,
current Chief Operating Officer of Sphere 3D, will take on the
additional new role of President of Storage for Sphere 3D.
The combined Sphere 3D and UCX teams will focus
on expediting the migration of applications and their associated
data to a modernized IT infrastructure for its customers, as well
as empower workload mobility across their virtual and cloud
environments, while continuing to provide expert and professional
IT services.
Quotes
“This is a very important day for Sphere 3D,”
said Eric Kelly, CEO and Chairman, Sphere 3D. “UCX has exceptional
leadership teams, innovative technology, industry recognized
engineering talent, and an outstanding track record of delivering
next generation solutions to their customers. We are honored to
welcome them into the Sphere 3D family, and together we will build
on our combined history of innovation and partnership with our
customers to deliver data center solutions that support advanced IT
strategies and business requirements.”
“At UCX, we have focused our time, attention,
and resources on helping thousands of customers with their IT
needs. This includes over 100,000 virtual desktop deployments,
countless server workloads, and numerous service-related projects
and IT consulting, all while delivering incredible performance and
reliability,” said Joseph O’Daniel, President and CEO of Unified
ConneXions. “Our highly skilled sales, marketing, engineers,
solution architects, and support staff are genuinely excited to
join the Sphere 3D team. With our common commitment to next
generation solutions, we look forward to helping customers
accelerate their digital transformation.”
“We have utilized the services of Unified
ConneXions since 2009,” said Jerry N. Allen, Executive Director of
Technology and Information, Crowley Independent School District.
“Without a doubt, we would not be in the position we are now
without their expertise and guidance. Our Technology Services
department has gone from getting little to no respect and faith
from our stakeholders, to now being the most counted on team to
complete the task with efficiency and timeliness. We are very
thankful to have partnered with Joseph O’Daniel and the Unified
ConneXions team.”
“HVE has been a huge asset in taking our company
to the next level! Their virtual hardware solutions are incredible,
engineering knowledge is always impressive, and the service they
provide is second to none,” said John Feldman, VP of Sales, Cynergy
Technology. “We are very fortunate to be partnered with HVE, and
are extremely excited for what the future holds.”
“We had a situation where other desktop
infrastructure solutions in the marketplace, were not performing to
our high performance standards,” said Bryce Morrow, Chief
Information Officer, The Beck Group. “We worked extensively to test
the HVE VDI solution and found their solution not only met, but
exceeded our standards. Our people who needed this solution are now
able to perform their duties with the proper tools to drive
efficiency in our workflow and process. The HVE
implementation has also allowed us to share these technology
resources across the country.”
About Sphere 3D
Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ:ANY) delivers data
management, and desktop and application virtualization solutions
via hybrid Cloud, Cloud and on-premise implementations through its
global reseller network. Sphere 3D, along with its
wholly-owned subsidiaries Overland Storage and Tandberg Data, has a
strong portfolio of brands including Glassware 2.0™, NEO®, RDX®,
SnapCLOUD™, SnapScale®, SnapServer®, SnapSync™ and V3®. For
more information, visit www.sphere3d.com. Follow us on Twitter
@Sphere3D, @overlandstorage, and @tandbergdata.
About HVE ConneXions
HVE ConneXions is one of the fastest growing
technology providers of next generation storage and virtualization
solutions. Our engineering philosophy is dedicated to creating
Manageable, Scalable, Reproducible, and Predictable (MSRP)
solutions based on proven virtualization technologies running on
high-performance next generation solutions. For more information
and technical specifications on the HVE product line, visit
www.hveconnexions.com.
About Unified ConneXions
Unified ConneXions, Inc. is committed to
providing expert and professional IT and systems engineering
services to corporate, government, and educational institutions.
Unified ConneXions offers a wide range of services for any size
organization. These services include network design and
implementation, strategic architectural and operational planning,
training in the use of the network, application training within the
network, high-speed wireless communications for LAN and WAN
environments, and consulting for any other type of technology
applications. For more information, please visit www.ucx.co.
Safe Harbor Statement This
press release contains forward-looking statements that involve
risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to
predict. Actual results and the timing of events could differ
materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking
statements as a result of risks and uncertainties including,
without limitation, our inability to consummate the acquisition as
discussed in this press release; our inability to achieve the
anticipated financial and other results from the acquisition
(including its potentially accretive effects), if consummated; our
inability to comply with the covenants in our credit facilities or
to obtain additional debt or equity financing; any increase in our
future cash needs; the Company’s ability to transfer the listing of
its common stock to the NASDAQ Capital Market due to its failure to
regain compliance with the NASDAQ Global Market listing standards
by January 30, 2017 and its ability to maintain listing with such
market; unforeseen changes in the course of Sphere 3D’s business or
the business of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, including, without
limitation, Overland Storage and Tandberg Data; market adoption and
performance of our products; the level of success of our
collaborations and business partnerships; possible actions by
customers, partners, suppliers, competitors or regulatory
authorities; and other risks detailed from time to time in Sphere
3D’s periodic reports contained in our Annual Information Form and
other filings with Canadian securities regulators (www.sedar.com)
and in prior periodic reports filed with the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). Sphere 3D
undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement,
whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time,
whether as a result of new information, future developments or
otherwise, except as required by law.
Sphere 3D Media Contact:
Tina Brown
408-283-4731
media.relations@sphere3d.com
Investor Contact:
The Blueshirt Group
Mike Bishop
Tel: +1 415-217-4968
mike@blueshirtgroup.com
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