SAN DIEGO, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overland Storage, Inc.
(Nasdaq: OVRL) today announced the appointment of Eric Kelly, a current member
of its board of directors, as the company's new chief executive officer. Vern
LoForti, who previously served as the company's president and CEO, will
continue to serve as president.
Kelly joined Overland's board in November 2007, bringing nearly 30 years
of experience in computer technology with an emphasis on operational,
marketing and sales expertise. He previously was president of Silicon Valley
Management Partners Inc., a management consulting and M&A advisory firm, which
he co-founded in 2007. Kelly previously served as president of Maxtor
Corporation's systems business, and also held positions at Dell Computer
Corp., Diamond Multimedia, Conner Peripherals and IBM.
In 2002, Kelly assembled a group of private equity investors and
engineered the purchase of Snap Appliance from Quantum Corp. for $10 million.
Kelly recognized the product line's inherent value, and, as Snap's president
and CEO, led the business to become the worldwide volume leader in the Network
Attached Storage market. Only 18 months later in July 2004, Kelly sold the
Snap business to Adaptec, Inc. in a transaction valued at $100.4 million,
representing over a 10-fold increase in the value of the business. He then
served as vice president and general manager of Adaptec's storage systems
solutions for two more years. Then, in early 2008, after joining Overland's
board the previous November, Kelly saw another opportunity to reacquire Snap
as Adaptec put the business on the market. He helped facilitate the
acquisition of Snap by Overland in June 2008 for a purchase price of $3.6
million.
"I firmly believe that the intrinsic value of Overland is significantly
greater than its current market valuation. The combination of the Snap
business, with which I am intimately familiar, the existing Overland product
portfolio, and the coveted branded sales channel that Overland has built over
the past 20 years, is a potent combination which we plan to leverage," said
Kelly. "As a member of a special committee of Overland's Board formed to
review the company's operations, I have worked closely with the management
team to formulate the restructuring plan that was announced earlier this
month. We have a solid plan to return the company to profitability, and I am
confident that we can execute our strategic plan and build value for our
shareholders and employees."
The company will be announcing its results for the second fiscal quarter
ended December 31, 2008, on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. A management conference
call to discuss the results is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. PST on that day.
Notice under NASDAQ Rule 4803
In connection with his appointment as chief executive officer, Mr. Kelly
resigned as a member of the company's audit committee and nominating and
governance committee. The company notified NASDAQ today that as a result of
Mr. Kelly's resignation from the audit committee, the company is not in
compliance with NASDAQ Marketplace Rule 4350(d)(2)(A), which requires the
audit committee of each NASDAQ issuer to have at least three independent
members, at least one of whom is a financial expert. The audit committee is
now comprised of two independent members, one of whom is a financial expert.
Under Rule 4350(d)(4)(B), the company will have until the earlier of its next
annual meeting of shareholders or January 27, 2010 to regain compliance with
Rule 4350(d)(2)(A). In response to the company's notification, pursuant to
Rule 4803(a), the company expects to receive written correspondence from the
Staff of the NASDAQ Listing Department regarding its failure to comply with
Rule 4350(d)(2)(A), and the company is providing this disclosure pursuant to
Nasdaq Rule 4803.
About Overland Storage
Overland Storage is an innovative provider of smart, affordable data
protection appliances that help midrange and distributed enterprises ensure
business-critical data is constantly protected, readily available and always
there. Overland's award-winning products include NEO SERIES(R) and ARCvault(R)
tape libraries, REO SERIES(R) disk-based appliances with Virtual Tape Library
(VTL) capabilities, ULTAMUS(R) RAID SAN-based appliances and Snap Server
NAS-based appliances. Overland sells its products through leading OEMs,
commercial distributors, storage integrators and value-added resellers. For
more information, visit Overland's web site at www.overlandstorage.com
Except for the factual statements made herein, the information contained
in this news release consists of forward-looking statements that involve
risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Words and
expressions reflecting optimism, satisfaction or disappointment with current
prospects, as well as words such as "believes," "hopes," "intends,"
"estimates," "expects," "projects," "plans," "anticipates" and variations
thereof, identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean
that a statement is not forward-looking. Such forward-looking statements are
not guarantees of performance and the company's actual results could differ
materially from those contained in such statements. Factors that could cause
or contribute to such differences include: the performance of Mr. Kelly as
CEO, our ability to obtain sufficient funding to execute our business
strategy; possible delays in new product introductions and shipments; failure
to achieve desired benefits from cost-cutting measures, including the January
2009 restructurings; market acceptance of the company's new product offerings;
the ability to maintain strong relationships with branded channel partners;
the timing and market acceptance of new product introductions by competitors;
worldwide information technology spending levels; unexpected shortages of
critical components; our inability to penetrate the video surveillance market
successfully; rescheduling or cancellation of customer orders; loss of a major
customer; general competition and price pressures in the marketplace; the
company's ability to control costs and expenses; and general economic
conditions. Reference is also made to other factors detailed from time to time
in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this
release and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances
after the date of this release.
Overland, Overland Storage, REO Series, REO, NEO Series, NEO, ARCvault
Series, ARCvault ULTAMUS and Snap Server are trademarks of Overland Storage,
Inc.
SOURCE Overland Storage, Inc.
CONTACT: Sue Hetzel of HetzelMeade Communications, +1-760-434-9927,
sue@hetzelmeade.com
Web Site: http://www.overlandstorage.com
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