Struggling storage vendor Iomega Corp. [IOM] last week rejected EMC Corp.'s [EMC] $178 million buyout offer, but a sweetened offer announced today has caught its interest.

Iomega says today that it will meet with EMC to discuss the storage software giant's $3.75 per share, or $205.5 million, acquisition offer. The target in December had finally struck upon a possible solution to boost its sluggish growth, announcing a merger with ExcelStor Great Wall Technology Ltd., a subsidiary of Beijing's Great Wall Technology Co. Ltd. The $305.8 million deal would have tripled annual revenues for the maker of hard drives and other external storage devices and given control of Iomega to its merger partner.

The latest offer EMC deal constitutes a superior proposal to the ExcelStor, Iomega says, though it added that there is no guarantee an agreement would be reached.

Shares of Iomega climbed 8.6%, to $3.54, in morning trading. - Olaf de Senerpont Domis

See March 17 press release from Iomega via Yahoo! Finance
See March 10 press release from Iomega
See December 2007 story from Tech Confidential