A month after rejecting a takeover proposal from EMC Corp. [EMC], storage vendor Iomega Corp. [IOM] Tuesday afternoon said it agreed to a sweetened offer from its larger rival.

The companies said EMC would pay $3.85 per share for struggling Iomega, or $213 million, in a cash tender offer that would kick off within two weeks. The announcement comes three weeks after Iomega deemed EMC's offer superior to an earlier argreement it had struck to merge with ExcelStor Great Wall Technology Ltd., a subsidiary of Beijing's Great Wall Technology Co. Ltd.

Iomega, maker of the Zip drive, on Tuesday said it has killed the ExelStor deal and paid a $7.5 million termination fee. EMC's success follows a failed earlier attempt to buy Iomega for $178 million. Iomega will become the core of EMC's small business and consumer products division, led by Iomega CEO Jonathan Huberman.

The announcement marks the end of a big day at Thomas Weisel Partners. TWP's Blake Kim, Cole Bader, Brian Sapp and Katan D'Souza advised Iomega on the deal. The bank also represented Nuance Communications Inc. [NUAN] in its $400 million purchase of eScription Inc., announced this morning. -- Olaf de Senerpont Domis

See April 8 press release from EMC via Yahoo! Finance
See March 17 post from Tech Confidential
See December 2007 story from Tech Confidential