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Key people at Iomega.
Iomega, based in Roy, Utah, was a prominent manufacturer of removable data storage devices, widely recognized for its popular Bernoulli Box, Zip drives, and Jaz drives. These portable, fast, and high-capacity solutions were designed for affordable and convenient data management, becoming widely adopted by power users, small office/home office users, and general PC owners. The company achieved a peak revenue of $1.2 billion in 1996 and a valuation approaching $7 billion, employing up to 1,270 individuals during its significant growth phase. Founded in 1980 by Jerome Paul Johnson, David Bailey, and David Norton, Iomega received early funding from Idanta Partners, associated with the Bass family, and saw leadership from executives like Kim Kucha and Fred Wenninger. Iomega was later acquired by EMC Corporation for $213 million in April 2008, continuing to operate under the EMC umbrella for several years.
Key people at Iomega.
Iomega Corporation was a pioneering computer hardware company specializing in data storage solutions, best known for its removable media products like the Zip drive and Jaz drive, which became hugely popular in the 1990s for offering far greater capacity than floppy disks.[1][2][4] It served both consumers and businesses needing reliable, portable storage, solving the era's limitations in data capacity and transfer speeds with innovative drives like the Bernoulli Box and later Zip disks (100MB to 750MB capacities).[2][4][6] The company experienced volatile growth, going public in 1983 with $21.7 million raised amid early sales of $7 million, but faced crises including massive losses and workforce cuts before peaking in the 1990s; it was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2008, becoming a division focused on storage servers.[1][2][4][5]
Iomega was founded in 1980 by David Bailey and David Norton as Databyte Corporation in Roy, Utah, quickly renaming to Iomega Corporation with under $5 million in venture capital from the Bass family's Idanta Partners.[1][2] The founders, engineers tackling data storage challenges, spent three years developing technology based on 200-year-old Bernoulli's principle, leading to the revolutionary Bernoulli Box—a high-capacity drive that launched the company into the spotlight.[2][6] Early years were tough, marked by R&D in modest facilities and capital struggles, but the 1983 IPO provided a pivotal boost amid $7 million in sales; the company later moved headquarters to San Diego.[1][2][3] Leadership shifts, like Kim Kucha's 1987 cost-cutting amid $39 million losses and a cash crisis, tested resilience before Zip drive success in 1994 drove massive traction.[1][4]
Iomega stood out in the competitive storage market through innovative, user-friendly products and engineering focus:
Iomega rode the personal computing boom of the 1980s-1990s, capitalizing on exploding demand for affordable, high-capacity storage as PCs proliferated and software sizes grew beyond floppy limits (e.g., post-1981 3.5-inch drives).[1][2][4] Timing was ideal amid CD-ROM emergence (1982) and tape innovations like IBM's 3480 (1984), positioning Iomega as a bridge to removable media before hard drives dominated.[1] Market forces like venture funding and IPO markets fueled its R&D, while consumer adoption influenced ecosystems—Zip became a de facto standard, spurring file-sharing norms and competing with emerging optical tech.[2][4] Its 2008 EMC acquisition integrated consumer innovations into enterprise storage, shaping data management transitions.[1][4][5]
Post-2008 acquisition, Iomega operates as an EMC (now Dell EMC) division, with a lingering San Diego presence offering legacy support for Zip-era products via channels like (858) 314-7000.[3][4] Nostalgia drives collector interest in Zip/Jaz tech, but modern relevance lies in its DNA influencing reliable, simple storage amid cloud dominance. Trends like edge computing and hybrid storage could revive removable concepts for offline resilience; expect evolution into niche, durable solutions rather than mass-market revival, tying back to its roots as a scrappy innovator that defined portable data for a generation.[1][4]
