A secret bidder has made an unexpected high-value acquisition offer for data protection vendor Double-Take Software.

Double-Take replicates a physical or virtual server's disk writes to a remote machine or the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud for disaster recovery purposes. The firm also has some server virtualisation management functionality courtesy of its acquisitions of EmBoot and TimeSpring Software.

One of its main competitors is NeverFail. Double-Take reckons it has around 22,000 customers, spread among small and large enterprises, and went public at the end of 2006.

It has announced preliminary results for the first quarter of 2010, and expects first quarter revenue to be in the range of $18.8m to $18.9m, compared to its previous guidance of $20.0m to $21.2m.

Dean Goodermote, its chairman and CEO, said:

The quarter finished weaker than we expected. Software license sales were up over last year, but they did not rebound to the extent that we anticipated. Renewal rates were strong, pipelines are good and controlled spending kept our margins at or near the low end of our guidance. We plan to reduce our hiring expansion plans until we experience growth at a faster rate. In addition, although we are evaluating expressions of interest in the Company, we continue to plan for a strong independent future.

Double-Take's board is reviewing the indications of interest, and considering other possible strategic transactions. Formally it states:

Double-Take does not expect to make further public comments regarding these matters unless and until it enters into a definitive agreement with respect to a transaction or determines that none will be pursued.

The possible purchasers are legion, ranging from tier one server and system suppliers to mid-size suppliers looking to strengthen their data protection product lines. ®