Cloud

Western Digital Acquires Upthere (HITS)

Western Digital and Upthere announced today that Western Digital has completed the asset acquisition of Upthere, a leading cloud services company that is providing a new and better way to keep, find and share what’s important and meaningful to consumers.

“Upthere is delivering on its mission to transform the personal storage market, and we share their focus on providing consumers more rich and meaningful experiences with their data,” said Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager of Client Solutions at Western Digital. “I’m pleased to have Upthere CEO Chris Bourdon join the team as a strategic leader. His extensive software expertise will help accelerate our user experience and cloud services imperatives across all aspects of the Client Solutions business.”

Upthere provides an enhanced storage experience designed to be the single home for all of a user’s photos, videos, documents and music. The Upthere app is platform agnostic and available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, as well as macOS and Windows PCs. The addition of Upthere’s technology and team to Western Digital’s Client Solutions business unit will enhance the company’s consumer products portfolio with new cloud-based offerings.

Bourdon added, “The Upthere team is excited to join Western Digital, with whom we share a long-standing relationship and commitment to significantly advance the consumer experience through cloud-based solutions. It is clear that Western Digital recognizes the great technology and products we have developed and this transaction is a testament to our hard-working team. I am confident that, together, we will continue to innovate cloud-based services with the potential to revolutionize how consumers and businesses create, manage and keep their important data.”

Barbara Nelson will lead Western Digital’s Cloud Services business. Ms. Nelson recently joined Western Digital from IronKey, a cloud security business where she was executive vice president and general manager. She has a strong entrepreneurial track record, having been the chief executive officer at two start-up companies, and has led the growth of businesses from concept to over $100 million on four separate occasions.