Fabrik Inc.

Fabrik Inc. was a manufacturer of external hard drives and digital content management software and services. Fabrik claims it was the third largest supplier of external storage products in North America in 2007.[1] It is headquartered in San Mateo, with offices in Santa Ana and Culver City, California.

Fabrik Inc.
Type of businessSubsidiary of Hitachi
Founded2005
Headquarters
San Mateo, California, United States
Key peopleKeyur Patel, Chairman
Mike Cordano, CEO
IndustryExternal hard disk drive, backup and content management services
ProductsSimpleTech
G-Technology
Joggle
Fabrik Ultimate Backup.
Employees140
URLwww.fabrik.com

The company sells external hard drives and online backup software in a bundled product for consumers, small business users and audio/video (A/V) content creation professionals.[2] The company also hosts the free online digital content management and sharing site, Joggle.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Fabrik's product lines include SimpleTech, G-Technology, Joggle and Fabrik Ultimate Backup.

History

Fabrik was founded as a Web-based software company in August 2005 by former Maxtor executives Mike Cordano and Keyur Patel. Anaal Udaybabu designed a brand identity for on-the-web storage.[9][10][11][12][13] The following month, the company disclosed the completion of its series A funding of $4.1 million followed by $8 million in series B funding in July 2006 and $14.3 million in February 2007. Then in May 2007, the company received $24.9 million in funding, bringing the total to about $51.3 million in funding.[14][15]

In February 2006, Fabrik partnered with Maxtor (acquired by Seagate in 2005) to develop Maxtor Fusion, a network-attached storage (NAS) device built for organizing and sharing digital files, and in late 2006 the company launched myfabrik.com, which organized and stored digital media online.[16][17]

In February 2007, the company acquired the consumer business of SimpleTech, inheriting the SimpleTech product line of external hard drives for consumers and small businesses.[18]

In January 2008, Fabrik acquired G-Technology and inherited a suite of external hard drives for Mac, creative pro, photography and A/V markets, including FireWire eSATA, USB, SCSI and Fibre Channel storage products.[19][20][21]

Fabrik's acquisitions and the introduction of Joggle at the DEMO conference in January 2008 created four brands: SimpleTech, G-Technology, Joggle and Fabrik Ultimate Backup. SimpleTech and G-Technology products were still branded as such and maintained separate online website entities.[22][23][24][25][26]

On February 23, 2009, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced it agreed to acquire Fabrik.[27][28] At this point Fabrik revenue for the year (2009) was estimated at $350M to $400M range and growing 40% on yearly basis.

On April 6, 2009, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies completed the acquisition, which formed the core of Hitachi GST's new Branded Business division.[29]

Following the acquisition, the subsidiary was branded 'G-Technology by Hitachi'.

Products and services

The company's SimpleTech products are external hard drives for mainstream consumers and small business users. It includes portable external hard drives and desktop external hard drives. All SimpleTech products come bundled with free local backup software and online backup capabilities.

The SimpleTech [re]drive has a 100 percent recyclable enclosure and several energy and resource efficiency features.[30] The company claims the [re]drive is the world's most eco-friendly, resource conscious external hard drive.[31] The original design of the SimpleTech portable external storage product line was inspired by the Ferrari design team Pininfarina.

Fabrik started a free online digital content management site called Joggle in early 2008. The Web site searches for video, photos and music on a user's computer, external hard drive or online communities and networking sites and automatically consolidates it into a single online organizing and sharing tool.[32][33][34][35][36]

The company also has a pure online backup approach, Fabrik Ultimate Backup, where data can be backed up to remote servers using 128-bit SSL and Blowfish encryption.[37]

References
  1. Company press release, July 2, 2007. “Fabrik Unveils 250GB of Sleek Portable Storage Archived 2008-05-17 at the Wayback Machine.” Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  2. Unknown author, August 12, 2008. “Deal Radar 2008: Fabrik.” sramana mitra. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  3. Company press release, January 28, 2008. “Fabrik Introduces Joggle at DEMO 08 Archived 2008-10-12 at the Wayback Machine.” Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  4. Michael Miller, January 29, 2008. “Demo08: ‘We’re Not Just Conference Producers, We’re Consumers' Archived 2009-01-25 at the Wayback Machine." PC Magazine. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  5. Sean Captain, January 30, 2008. “Tech Startups Rock DEMO Conference.” Popular Science. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  6. Dan Farber, January 29, 2008. “Demo 08: Web apps for mere mortals.” ZDNet. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  7. Richard Martin, January 29, 2008. “At DEMO, Business Organization Becomes The Key.” InformationWeek. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  8. Marshall Kirkpatrick, July 10, 2006. “Fabrik media storage opens limited beta accounts today.” TechCrunch. Retrieved on October 22, 2008.
  9. Om Malik, March 29, 2006. “VC dollars return to the desktop.” Business 2.0. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  10. Dan Fost, September 11, 2006. “Personal memories can go in startup’s memory.” San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  11. Tom Foremski, March 30, 2006. “Maxtor and Fabrik team up to drive the digital media home.” Silicon Valley Watcher. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  12. Unknown author, August 12, 2008. “Deal Radar 2008: Fabrik.” sramana mitra. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  13. Marshall Kirkpatrick, July 10, 2006. “Fabrik media storage opens limited beta accounts today.” TechCrunch. Retrieved on October 22, 2008.
  14. Kristen Nicole, May 17, 2008. “Fabrik Raises $24.9M in Funding, Adds Ross Levinsohn to Board.” Mashable. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  15. Unknown author, August 12, 2008. “Deal Radar 2008: Fabrik.” sramana mitra. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  16. Narasu Rebbapragada, February 8, 2007. “Online media storage makes sharing content easy, though its stylish, minimalist interface hides some features.” PC World. Retrieved on October 22, 2008.
  17. Tom Foremski, May 30, 2007. “Silicon Valley Watcher: MyFabrik Archived 2009-02-08 at the Wayback Machine.” PodTech. Retrieved on October 22, 2008.
  18. Company press release, February 12, 2007. “Fabrik Acquires SimpleTech’s Consumer Business Archived 2008-10-12 at the Wayback Machine.” Retrieved on October 22, 2008.
  19. Michael Arrington, January 15, 2008. “Fabrik Acquires G-Technology, Expect 2008 Revenues of $200+ million.” TechCrunch. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  20. Alistair Croll, January 15, 2008. “Fabrik Buys G-Tech to Consolidate Consumer Storage Offerings.” GigaOm. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  21. Unknown author, August 12, 2008. “Deal Radar 2008: Fabrik.” sramana mitra. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  22. Michael Miller, January 29, 2008. “Demo08: ‘We’re Not Just Conference Producers, We’re Consumers’. Archived 2009-01-25 at the Wayback Machine” PC Magazine. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  23. Sean Captain, January 30, 2008. “Tech Startups Rock DEMO Conference.” Popular Science. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  24. Dan Farber, January 29, 2008. “Demo 08: Web apps for mere mortals.” ZDNet. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  25. Richard Martin, January 29, 2008. “At DEMO, Business Organization Becomes The Key.” InformationWeek. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  26. Marshall Kirkpatrick, July 10, 2006. “Fabrik media storage opens limited beta accounts today.” TechCrunch. Retrieved on October 22, 2008.
  27. Darren Murph (February 25, 2009). "Hitachi acquires Fabrik, looks to expand market presence". Engadget blog. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  28. "Hitachi GST Strategically Expands into External Storage; to Acquire Fabrik, Inc" (PDF). News release. February 23, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2010. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  29. "Hitachi GST Completes Acquisition of Fabrik, Inc. — Company Sets Stage for Continued Global Expansion" (PDF). News release. April 6, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2010. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  30. Gerry Blackwell, October 22, 2008. “Green Backups: The SimpleTech [re]Drive Review.” Datamation. Retrieved on October 23, 2008.
  31. Company press release, July 28, 2008. “Fabrik Launches World’s Most Eco-Friendly External Drive Archived 2008-11-20 at the Wayback Machine.” Retrieved on October 23, 2008.
  32. Company press release, January 28, 2008. “Fabrik Introduces Joggle at DEMO 08 Archived 2008-10-12 at the Wayback Machine.” Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  33. Michael Miller, January 29, 2008. “Demo08: ‘We’re Not Just Conference Producers, We’re Consumers’ Archived 2009-01-25 at the Wayback Machine.” PC Magazine. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  34. Sean Captain, January 30, 2008. “Tech Startups Rock DEMO Conference.” Popular Science. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  35. Dan Farber, January 29, 2008. “Demo 08: Web apps for mere mortals.” ZDNet. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  36. Richard Martin, January 29, 2008. “At DEMO, Business Organization Becomes The Key.” InformationWeek. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  37. Jon L. Jacobi, November 27, 2007. "Ultimate Backup is a super handy way to keep your files remotely backed up." PC World. Retrieved on November 5, 2008.
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