Netgear buys network storage company

The company may pay up to $20 million more to Infrant shareholders over the next three years if certain financial goals are met, and the acquisition is expected to close this quarter, Netgear said. Infrant Chief Executive Paul Tien is set to become vice president and general manager of storage products at Netgear.

Fremont, Calif.-based Infrant is one of a host of companies making storage systems that connect to home or work computers via standard Ethernet networks, a technology that lets multiple computers share the same storage. NAS is typically a higher-end, more expensive technology, but it's spreading to small businesses as people need more data protection and capacity.

"Infrant's offerings complement Netgear's current Storage Central offering, which is based on Zetera's micro SAN (storage area network) technology and accelerates Netgear's participation in the expanding market for network-attached storage," Netgear Chairman and CEO Patrick Lo said. "As people continue to invest in creating, sharing and securely saving digital content, we expect the demand for network-attached storage (to) continue to grow."

Netgear, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is acquiring Infrant's 34 employees, manufacturing relationships and 12-month future product pipeline. It plans to expand Netgear's distribution globally.