Data storage companies focus on flash M&A potential

Making it into our top three merger and acquisition deals of 2012 is Microsoft Corp.'s October announcement that it intended to scoop up cloud storage controller startup StorSimple. That was big news because Microsoft rarely buys storage companies or hardware companies. The Microsoft-StorSimple acquisition helped validate the cloud gateway and appliance market, and also got some buzz going over where the Microsoft cloud strategy is headed. StorSimple will most likely be tied into Microsoft's Windows Azure storage cloud strategy, but we still don't know how tight the integration will be.