Dell, which has been a buying spree these past couple of months, has acquired a company in its own backyard, MessageOne. MessageOne, a provider of services for e-mail management, archiving and business continuity, will be rolled into Dell’s Software-as-a-Service suite, for a price of about $155 million in cash. According to Steve Schuckenbrock, president, Dell Global Services, and chief information officer, “This is a valuable acquisition for Dell. MessageOne’s offerings add key capabilities to our growing SaaS-enabled services portfolio for the most critical application to businesses of any size – e-mail.”

A leader in the industry, MessageOne brings to Dell world-class technology and talent that will broaden Dell’s configurable services offerings. The company plans to make MessageOne offerings available after close to both direct customers and channel partners.

MessageOne was co-founded by Adam Dell, Michael Dell’s brother, and is owned in part by two investment funds, Impact Venture Partners and Impact Entrepreneurs Fund, managed by Adam Dell.

Once again, this is great news for Austin, both through a local startup seeing a successful exit, and that Dell is continuing in its acquisition mood!

[Congratulations to Satin, Paul, and Mike. You guys deserve it. You were a shoe-in for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year this year, and when you get acquired I don't think you qualify anymore! --Editor]