Has Spare Backup had a Carphone Warehouse boost?

Cloud backup service provider Spare Backup has just got a big business boost from a UK partner, thought to be Carphone Warehouse.

Spare Backup has an June 24, 2009 SEC filing that says is has agreed" "... a vastly expanded scope of work to be added as an addendum to their (November 8, 2008 Master Services Agreement) (and) will provide a platform for Cloud Computing, Online PC data backup, online PC data transfer, PC synchronization and other additional services. These services will be co-branded with its partner's name and powered by Spare Backup through the term of an extended MSA. The agreement in principle contemplates equity participation, and is subject to future negotiations."

Asked who the existing UK partner was a Spare Backup spokesperson said: "Unfortunately we cannot divulge that information. We can tell you that we only have three."

Okay, let's go trawling through Spare Backup's SEC filings looking for the three UK partners.

On June 2, 2009, Spare Backup entered filed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Comet, with more than 250 stores in the UK, "pending completion of a Master Services Agreement. The MOU details the provision of Spare Backup services to include Online PC data backup, PC data transfer, Cloud computing (Spare Room) and PC synchronization services. These services will be co-branded Comet, powered by Spare Backup through the term of the MOU."

On November 19, 2008, Dixons Stores Group International and Spare Backup agreed a "two-year extension regarding their online Backup Agreement of February 2007." DSGI could "acquire additional warrants equal to five per cent (5%) of Spare Backup’s currently outstanding common stock at an exercise price of $0.30 per share provided DSGI meets certain monthly sales targets which start on an average of 20,000 units per month over a 6-month period." The February 2007 agreement refers to PC Backup services.

In March this year Spare Backup announced that DSGI would resell its Spare Room cloud services. The first version of the Spare Room application will include the Spare Room Photo Page where users can manage, share and retouch photos. Future versions will include Video, Contact Management, Synchronization, Mobile, and Calendar management. These features will be displayed on a Spare Room Dashboard so a user can navigate Spare Room and manage their digital data stored in the Spare cloud.

An agreement on November 5, 2008, relates to Carphone Warehouse and specifies that Spare Backup will provide "data backup services for Carphone’s customers (and) a backup Web site for Carphone." This agreement runs for a year.

Here's our threesome then: Carphone Warehouse; Comet; and DSGI. Which one is it?

There is no filing relating to a Master Services Agreement of November 8, 2008, but there is the November 5, 2008, agreement with CarPhone Warehouse. The Comet agreement already refers to cloud computing as does the DSGI one, which also has equity participation. Ergo the extended agreement is with Carphone Warehouse.

We asked it if it was the one but it was unable to immediately comment.

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