SimpleTech

SimpleTech
Founded Late 1990s
Headquarters San Mateo, California, United States
Industry External hard disk drive, backup and content management services

SimpleTech is a consumer brand of external hard drives and backup products owned by Fabrik Inc. and designed to integrate computer hardware, software, and online services to help consumers store, protect, manage, and share digital content. The brand and product line was originally created by Simple Technology, a company founded in 1990, which later changed its name to SimpleTech in 2001.

SimpleTech (now STEC, Inc.) sold the SimpleTech brand and consumer products: flash memory cards, USB flash drives, memory upgrades, and external and portable disk drive storage, to Fabrik in February 2007. Fabrik acquired the SimpleTech’s storage platform to integrate and deliver backup and content management software and web services (FabrikUltimateBackup.com and Joggle.com), allowing consumers to store, access, manage and share their digital content.[1]

The SimpleTech product line includes the Signature Mini USB Portable Drives, the Pro Drive family, and the environmentally friendly SimpleTech [re]drive.[2] The original design of the SimpleTech portable external storage product line was inspired by the Ferrari design team Pininfarina.[2][3][4][5]

History

Simple Technology was originally founded by two brothers from Iran in 1990, using $100,000 of their own savings: chief executive Manouch Moshayedi and president Mike Moshayedi. In 1993, the youngest brother at 38, Mark Moshayedi, joined the company as chief operating and technical officer.[6][7]

After a series of acquisitions, the company went public as Simple Technology in 2000 and its name was shortened to SimpleTech in 2001.[3][4][7] From 1990 to 2007, SimpleTech designed and manufactured flash solid-state drives, dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), and static random-access memory (SRAM).

The SimpleShare consumer network attached storage device was announced in November 2004.[8] In 2006 SimpleTech announced its first portable external hard drive designed by Pininfarina.

In early 2007, STEC decided to focus on selling flash memory cards, solid state drives, and DRAM memory products to manufacturers and industrial distributors and sold the SimpleTech consumer division to Fabrik (a company funded and founded by Keyur Patel, Anaal Udaybabu along with Mike Cordano) for $43 million in cash.[3][4][7][9] The OEM business then operated as sTec, Inc. and was publicly traded on NASDAQ until being acquired in 2013.

Fabrik continued to develop and market products under the SimpleTech brand including the Joggle.com website and the environmentally friendly [re]drive introduced in 2008.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Fabrik was acquired by Hitachi in 2009 for estimated $950 million.

Products

SimpleTech [re]drive – The [re]drive enclosure is made with 100 percent recyclable materials. It automatically shuts off when its connected computer does and includes Energy Star Level 4 certified power adapters. Fabrik recycles waste aluminum made during the manufacturing process and the product is sold in light packaging with recycled paper.

Joggle – Joggle is a free online digital content management site that was introduced in beta at the DEMO conference 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.

SimpleTech Signature Mini Portable – A small, portable USB storage device with capacities up to 500 GB that integrates with Fabrik’s online and local backup as well as the Joggle website.

SimpleTech Pro Drive – A line of external storage devices of varying sizes, data protection options and interfaces that come with free backup software and online backup.

References

  1. ↑ Duncan Martell, February 11, 2007. “Fabrik buys consumer business of SimpleTech.” Reuters. Retrieved on January 16, 2009.
  2. 1 2 SimpleTech Website
  3. 1 2 3 Press Release, February 12, 2007. “Fabrik Acquires SimpleTech’s Consumer Business”. Retrieved on December 17, 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 Unknown author, August 12, 2008. “Deal Radar 2008: Fabrik.” sramana mitra. Retrieved on October 21, 2008. Retrieved on December 17, 2008.
  5. ↑ Ryan Block, April 9, 2008. “SimpleTech SimpleDrive: up to 1TB, Pininfarina design.” Enamengadget. Retrieved on December 17, 2008.
  6. ↑ P J. Huffstutter, March 16, 2000. “Simple Technology IPO Planned With $57.5-Million Goal.” LA Times. Retrieved on December 17, 2008.
  7. 1 2 3 Chris Mellor, June 17, 2008. “There's a lot of sizzle with this STEC.” The Register. Retrieved on December 17, 2008.
  8. ↑ Keith Shaw, November 15, 2004. “Cool Tools.” Network World. Retrieved on January 16, 2009
  9. ↑ Om Malik, February 11, 2007. “Fabrik to buy SimpleTech, get big fast.” GigaOm. Retrieved on January 16, 2009.
  10. ↑ Company press release, January 28, 2008. “Fabrik Introduces Joggle at DEMO 08.” Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  11. ↑ Michael Miller, January 29, 2008. “Demo08: ‘We’re Not Just Conference Producers, We’re Consumers'." PC Magazine. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  12. ↑ Sean Captain, January 30, 2008. “Tech Startups Rock DEMO Conference.” Popular Science. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  13. ↑ Dan Farber, January 29, 2008. “Demo 08: Web apps for mere mortals.” ZDNet. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  14. ↑ Richard Martin, January 29, 2008. “At DEMO, Business Organization Becomes The Key.” InformationWeek. Retrieved on October 21, 2008.
  15. ↑ Marshall Kirkpatrick, July 10, 2006. “Fabrik media storage opens limited beta accounts today.” TechCrunch. Retrieved on December 17, 2008.
  16. ↑ Gerry Blackwell, October 22, 2008. “Green Backups: The SimpleTech [re]Drive Review.” Datamation. Retrieved on December 17, 2008.
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