IRVINE, Calif. and
BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Western
Digital® Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) and Unisplendour Corporation Limited
(Unis) (SZSE: 000938) today announced an agreement to form a joint
venture to market and sell Western Digital's current data center
storage systems in China and to
develop data center storage solutions for the Chinese market in the
future. The joint venture will be owned 51% by Unis and its
subsidiary, Unissoft (Wuxi) Group Co., Ltd., and 49% by Western
Digital. It will combine Unis' knowledge of the Chinese market with
Western Digital's storage solutions portfolio.
"China is a fast-growing
enterprise IT market. This joint venture is a useful opportunity to
offer our solutions in this dynamic market while working with a
company which provides key insights into China," said Western Digital chief executive
officer Steve Milligan. "With Unis'
experience, together we can offer a portfolio of storage solutions
that is tailored to the needs of China-based customers. We also look forward to
maintaining strong relationships with our existing partners in
China."
"We are excited to offer our knowledge of the Chinese IT space
in order to bring Western Digital's portfolio of storage solutions
to market," said Weiguo Zhao,
chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup and Unisplendour Corporation. "Our
track-record of working with global technology companies has
positioned us well as Western Digital's partner in this endeavor,
and we look forward to capturing the attractive growth opportunity
in China together."
The transaction has been approved by the boards of each company,
and the joint venture is expected to become operational by the
second calendar quarter of 2016, pending regulatory approvals. The
joint venture will be based in China.
About Western Digital
Founded in 1970, Western
Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine,
Calif., is an industry-leading developer and manufacturer of
storage solutions that enable people to create, manage, experience
and preserve digital content. It is a long-time innovator in the
storage industry. Western Digital Corporation is responding to
changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling,
high-quality storage products with effective technology deployment,
high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Its products are marketed
under the HGST and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers,
cloud infrastructure providers and consumers. Financial and
investor information is available on the company's Investor
Relations website at investor.wdc.com.
About Unisplendour
As a leading information technology company in China, Unisplendour Corporation Limited (Unis,
000938.SZ) is dedicated to research, development, production, sales
and service of IT products and solutions. Centered by its
"cloud-network-endpoint" strategy, Unis' business has covered a
broad range from servers, storage, networking equipment to IT
service, application development and system integration, and is
expanding to cloud computing, mobile Internet and big data
processing.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release
contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
forward-looking statements include those concerning the anticipated
benefits of the joint venture with Unis and the timing of its
commencement of operations. These forward-looking statements are
based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking
statements, including: the possibility that the joint venture may
not commence operations within the anticipated timeframe; the
expected benefits of the joint venture may not materialize as
expected; volatility in global economic conditions; business
conditions and growth in the storage ecosystem; pricing trends and
fluctuations in average selling prices; the availability and cost
of commodity materials and specialized product components;
unexpected advances in competing technologies; the development and
introduction of products based on new technologies and expansion
into new data storage markets; actions by competitors; and other
risks and uncertainties in Western Digital's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including Western Digital's
Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on Aug.
21, 2015. You should not place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof,
and neither Western Digital nor Unis undertake any obligation to
update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent
events or circumstances.
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SOURCE Western Digital Corp.