At that time, Forbes noted EMC's "focus on developing and selling data storage and data management hardware and software and convincing its customers to buy its products independent of their other IT buying decisions" based on "best-of-breed.

[citation needed] While some of EMC's growth is credited to acquisitions of smaller companies,[13] Symmetrix was the main factor in EMC's rapid growth during the 1990s, from a firm valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars to a multi-billion dollar company.

[16] Under Ruettgers' leadership, EMC revenues grew from $120 million to nearly $9 billion 10 years later, and the company shifted its focus from memory boards to storage systems.

[17] Ahead of their acquisition by Dell, EMC gained a reputation for oppressive non-compete agreements and non-compete lobbying through AIM (Associated Industries of Massachusetts)[18][19] On October 12, 2015, Dell Inc. announced its intent to acquire EMC in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $67 billion, which as of 2021 remains the largest-ever acquisition in the technology sector.

[24][25] At the time, some analysts claimed that Dell's acquisition of the former Iomega could harm the LenovoEMC partnership.

[26] In addition to those of the majority-owned Pivotal company, Dell EMC sells products and services, including products from other Dell Technologies companies, designed to allow IT departments to move to a cloud computing model and to analyze big data.