Then it should be quite well protected!
"After takeover bids fizzle, Carbonite banks on small-business customers" by Curt Woodward
Mohamad Ali, the chief executive of Carbonite and a veteran technology executive, was named to the top job at the Boston-based online data backup company in early December, replacing co-founder David Friend. Just one day earlier, investor J2 Global had offered about $366 million for Carbonite, saying its financial performance in the highly competitive cloud-storage sector had been underwhelming.
That started a long back-and-forth between Carbonite, J2, and other investors interested in acquiring some or all of the business. The share price bumped up and came back down along with the twists and turns of the saga.
In the end, Carbonite decided to stay independent, confident that its plan to add reams of small and medium-sized businesses as customers of its data-backup service would generate more profits for shareholders than a quick sale.
The Force is with them!
Carbonite says that sales to its small-business customer base are growing well, with agreed-to contracts from small businesses in the first quarter up about 40 percent compared to a year ago.
Carbonite thinks it can thrive in this small-business category for a few reasons. First, Ali said in an interview at Carbonite’s Star Wars-themed headquarters, most commercial data backup suppliers are focused on big contracts at big companies, and their prices reflect it.
At the same time, smaller businesses — Carbonite defines the market as companies with about 300 or fewer employees — are using online marketing tools to become more global, and placing more value on their data about customers, suppliers, and inventory.
Ali said that Carbonite fits into that equation because it’s experienced in selling data backup services to consumers, who want products that are relatively easy to use and lower-priced. A larger competitor, he argues, would have a harder time shrinking its larger, more expensive offerings to meet a small-business market.
Carbonite’s continued earnings reports, of course, will be the ultimate test of this theory. And the company hasn’t been a moneymaker yet: since going public in mid-2011, Carbonite has reported annual losses of $23.5 million, $19 million, $10.6 million, and $9.4 million....
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It's alive, and in perfect hibernation.
UPDATE: Hits are stagnant and falling off a cliff. Thank you.
