Joe Tucci

EMC on Tuesday took the lid off its latest approach to high-end data storage: A new architecture to support virtual data centers. The company also announced a storage system based on the new architecture that it said will serve as a cornerstone of virtual computing infrastructures.

VMware Inc. abruptly replaced co-founder Diane Greene as chief executive Tuesday and lowered its sales outlook, triggering alarms that pounded the business software maker's shares to their lowest depths since the company's lucrative public offering 11 months ago.

Former Microsoft Corp. executive Paul Maritz took over as VMware's new leader. In the past few months, Maritz had been running a division of VMware's controlling shareholder, data storage specialist EMC Corp.

Data storage provider EMC Corp. said Tuesday it would acquire Iomega Corp. for $213 million (EU135.7 million), expanding EMC's offerings targeting small businesses and consumers.

The price is a 20 percent increase over EMC's initial bid of $178 million (EU113.4 million), or $3.25 per share. Iomega, a San Diego-based storage company best known for the Zip drive, had rejected that offer earlier this year, calling it inferior to a proposed all-stock transaction that Iomega had reached in December with a stockholder.