FLV Fund Sees Second Exit in ’01 –

Belgium-based FLV Fund has sold its stake in the Belgian company Filepool. No further valuation details have been released, although a capital gain for FLV fund has been confirmed.

EMC Corporation, a leader in information storage systems, software, networks and services has acquired FilePool in a cash transaction valued at less than $50 million. FilePool was founded in 1991 as Wave Research and renamed FilePool in 1999, when FLV Fund invested $1 million in the company. The fund granted a convertible loan of $354,000 in October 2000. FLV fund’s investment was part of a $10 million funding round, with Alpinvest as lead investor, acquiring some 34% of the Belgian company’s shares.

Over the last two years, FilePool has used the capital injection to expand its worldwide marketing efforts. As well as Belgium, the company now operates from offices in San Bruno, California and Paris, France and has recently opened offices in Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Scandinavia.

FilePool is an Internet infrastructure company that offers web-based applications for sharing, accessing and storing files on the Internet as well as storage outsourcing services. FilePool technology is based on an open, unified Internet storage paradigm.

The company offers partners such as ISPs, ASPs, web sites, system integrators and software developers a variety of services, including servers, agents, caching servers and a software development kit, as well as guaranteed permanent storage services.

FilePool is the sixth software acquisition EMC has made since January 2000. David Donatelli, senior vice president of new business development at EMC said: “Acquisitions such as FilePool position EMC for continued industry leadership in the burgeoning information storage market. FilePool helps expand EMC’s enterprise software capabilities and intellectual capital.”