Dell Sells SaaS Data Protection Vendor Spanning

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in February and March.**

Spanning, the SaaS backup and recovery vendor, is on the move.

The seven-year old vendor announced in a blog that it’s being acquired by Insight Venture Partners, and spun off from Dell Technologies, which inherited the company as part of the EMC acquisition.

Dell will continue to sell Spanning services, according to Jeff Erramouspe, the new chief executive at Spanning. EMC acquired spanning in October 2014.

“This acquisition will allow us to realize our full potential as a SaaS data-protection provider with an optimized go-to-market model and world-class product innovation. While we will miss being part of the Dell EMC family, we will remain close, strategic partners. Dell EMC will continue to sell Spanning Backup through their direct salesforce and channel partners,” wrote Erramouspe.{ad}

In June 2016, Dell sold its Software Group – that included SonicWall and Quest Software, among other assets – to Francisco Partners and Elliott Management Corp. News of the sale came just ahead of the EMC purchase in an effort to shed non-core assets and help finance the $67 billion deal.

Spanning reportedly protects more than 1.5 billion data objects for 7,000 customers weekly and restored about 18 million items for customers in 2016. The company offers SaaS data protection for Office 365, G Suite and Salesforce.