Storage specialist Iomega has been bought by information management giant EMC is a deal worth $213m (£107m).

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, will enable EMC to expand into the growing consumer and small-business markets, according to chief executive Joe Tucci.

"Iomega and EMC represent a powerful combination that ultimately will benefit these customers through the protection, security and simplified management of their rapidly growing information,” he said.

Jonathan Huberman, his opposite number at Iomega, said the move gave his company "a new opportunity for accelerated innovation that will translate into new product capabilities".

Hubermann will lead a new EMC division for consumer and small-business products.

Iomega has been packaging and selling EMC Retrospect backup software with its external disk drives for four years and has embedded its new parent's Lifeline software into network storage products due to launch this summer.

Iomega made a spectacular entry into the consumer market in 1994 when it used its high-end storage expertise to design and launch the Zip drive, using 100MB removable disks.

Zips became an instant bestseller at a time when few disk drives could hold more than a couple of hundred megabytes. But they became outmoded as capacities increased, and Iomega never managed to match their success.