EMC buys Iomega....Why?!?!?

EMC announced yesterday that they are purchasing Iomega for $213MM in order to "expand their offerings to small businesses and consumers." I understand that the price is right for EMC - which is to say a drop in the bucket - but I'm rather perplexed by this turn. EMC has been making a lot of moves in the consumer/SoHo space, such as their acquisition of Mozy late last year, but it is hard for me to tell if they are just snapping up well run, profitable ideas that someone else invested the time to build and grow (an old Microsoft habit) or if they are really looking to get into the consumer space for their products. While expanding their product offering certainly opens up avenues for sales, they just aren't that big. Iomega's net profit last year was about $10MM dollars. There's just not much value there. I guess it is $10MM more than EMC had last year, but the cost to get it seems high to me. Iomega does have an online storage arm to their company, so maybe this purchase is really just to get rid of a Mozy competitor.

Also of interest/entertainment value is that all the press releases seem to be describing Iomega as the "Zip drive maker" and ignoring the fact that they make a bunch of other products, including NAS and backup devices.