∞ Retrospect joins Roxio family

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Roxio owner Sonic Solutions has acquired Retrospect, the backup software long depended on by Mac users and IT professionals.

Roxio’s parent company, Sonic Solutions, acquired Retrospect from EMC on May 18, 2010, according to a statement released by Roxio. Sonic has made Retrospect part its Roxio division, which is responsible for developing Toast Titanium, the long-running CD and DVD burning software for the Mac.

Retrospect has a storied history on the Macintosh. Its original developer, Dantz Development Corp., got started in 1984. Dantz was ultimately acquired by enterprise software maker EMC in 2004. Retrospect is available in a variety of versions, including Mac and Windows versions designed for network and local hard drive backup.

Roxio is best known to Mac users for its Toast Titanium, Popcorn and Easy VHS to DVD conversion software. The company also makes software similar to Toast for Windows PCs called Creator.

In the statement announcing the acquisition signed by Roxio’s director of channel sales Matthew Johnson and senior vice president and general manager, Matt DiMaria, Sonic noted that Roxio and Retrospect are a good fit for several key reasons, including Sonic’s focus on the small to medium business market; Sonic’s cross-platform support; and a strong distribution model.

Sonic calls Retrospect’s operation “business as usual” with regards to end user support, and said that the development team will continue to work on Retrospect. A public beta version of Retrospect 8.2 for Mac is expected to be released in the coming weeks.


  • http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/ Daniel Jalkut

    I think the interesting angle to this story is that EMC acquired Mozy a few years ago. The fact that they decided to sell Retrospect probably reflects that online backups are a bigger growth area, and Mozy has undoubtedly already gained a higher brand value than Retrospect has.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/jdalrymple Jim Dalrymple

      I agree completely.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Adobephile Adobephile

    We used to use Retrospect, but these days I just like Time Machine. It's so easy to use. And it's saved my bacon more than once with its easy restore procedure.

  • criminy

    Here's hoping that the new owners do more with it than EMC did. Never did understand the strategic intent behind EMC's acquisition. EMC seems strongly focused on their Avamar software.

  • JbMe

    This SUCkS. We rely on enterprise level support, which fits well with much of EMC's portfolio. I see nothing at Sonic or Roxio even remotely comparable. I currently have an open support ticket and I am getting NO response. I used to get answers in an hour or two.

    Wish I could "reply-to-all" on that "no worries" email that Sonic sent! :(

  • http://www.retrospect.com Eric Ullman

    Thanks for picking this up, Jim. As the product manager for Retrospect, I can tell you that the team is pleased to be moving to Sonic/Roxio. EMC could have just shut Retrospect down, so they did a good thing by divesting the Retrospect business unit to Sonic. This allows development to continue at a place that really is a better fit.

    @JbMe: There have been a few hiccups as the operational changes got underway. Please contact me directly at ullman_eric at emc dot com, and we'll get you help right away.

  • JbMe

    Thanks, Eric. Mysteriously : ) a support tech has been in touch with me.

    We love Retrospect! Please don't let it die!

  • Gorby

    I’ve been using Retrospect for years!
    Love it! Don’t want to use the cloud! Have 3 PCs all backed up over the local LAN.

    NEVER had a problem restoring anything.

    Hmm! I have a legit copy, yet never received an email…

  • http://None Steve

    I have been using Retrospect for about 6 or 7 years and I like it fine but it is taking too much of my time now. I want to move to the cloud with my full folder structure visible so I can work effectively from any location with my PC or smart phone. I want this access on Amazon S3 or a data center environment with equivalent reliability. Through a retailed service and software interface is fine but only if it spells out the encryption and use of Amazons higher level reliabilty option (i.e. multi-site)

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    After hearing an interview with Mr. Ullman on YML back in July of 2009, I bought the desktop upgrade for version 8. I vaguely remember registering the product with then-owner EMC, but now have no record of an account I thought I’d continue to have access to. My fault; I’m normally very good with keeping documentation.

    Installation and setup on my old G5 proved more time-consuming than I’d expected, so I tabled the upgrade until a few deadlines were past, and continued using version 6. My plans to obtain an Intel Mac Pro to run version 8 from were postponed until recently.

    On my new Mac Pro, the console rejected my License Code with an error message, and Roxio Customer Care is responding by pointing me at a knowledgebase which instructs me to… check my License Code.

    I’m hoping I can get some help, but I suspect I may have to eat the upgrade cost.