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.