Unis-WDC Storage Co., Ltd. to market and sell
datacenter storage systems in China
Company to host celebratory event at Nanjing
Dongjiao State Guest House
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) and Unisplendour Corporation
Limited (Unis) (SZSE: 000938) under Unigroup today celebrated the
anticipated launch of their previously announced joint venture,
which will be called Unis-WDC Storage Co., Ltd. (UNIS WDC). The new
company is owned 51 percent by Unis and 49 percent by Western
Digital. UNIS WDC will market and sell Western Digital’s datacenter
storage systems, including its HGST Active Archive system, in
China. The joint venture company will also invest in the
development of new products and enhancements to Western Digital’s
products to create innovative solutions that address the evolving
needs of the big data market in China. UNIS WDC will maintain
corporate headquarters and R&D operations in Nanjing and a
sales and marketing office in Beijing.
UNIS WDC will host a celebratory event today at Nanjing Dongjiao
State Guest House. Guests include Xie Zhicheng, Deputy Mayor of
Nanjing; Weiguo Zhao, Chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup; Steve
Milligan, Chief Executive Officer of Western Digital; and Qi Lian,
Chief President of Tsinghua Unigroup. Zhang Lei, who has been
identified to serve as Chairman of UNIS WDC; and Gary Miao, who has
been identified to become Chief Executive Officer of UNIS WDC.
“Independent Innovation + International Cooperation”
Adhering to China’s development principle of “independent
innovation + international cooperation,” UNIS WDC will aim to
become “the strategic partner to China's big data industry.” UNIS
WDC is a critical part of Unigroup in its industry coverage “from
chip to cloud.” By combining the leading research and development,
design, production and market promotion strengths of Unigroup and
Western Digital, UNIS WDC will offer customized big data storage
solutions for the China market.
Unisplendour Corporation Limited of Unigroup holds a majority of
the shares of UNIS WDC. Unigroup is focused on expanding its
capabilities across core areas of the information technology
industry, including semiconductors, mobile interconnect, cloud
computing and cloud services. “As a Chinese enterprise, Unigroup is
focused on executing its information technology development
strategy, of which UNIS WDC is a critical part. UNIS WDC will
adhere to the concept of independent innovation and international
cooperation to drive new applications for big data storage in
government and local industries. It will focus on data storage,
analytics, security and privacy protection to improve and expand
the big data industry ecosystem in China,” said Weiguo Zhao,
Chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup.
Western Digital is the foreign investor of UNIS WDC. The
company’s innovative storage solutions that provide customers with
high capacity, flexibility and speed are at the heart of many of
the world's largest datacenters and embedded in advanced
smartphones, tablets and PCs. Western Digital completed the
acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in March 2012.
The combination created the world’s largest hard disk drive company
with a leading technology capability and broad product portfolio.
In May of 2016, Western Digital acquired SanDisk Corporation to
accelerate its expansion in flash storage and become the world’s
largest storage solutions provider. Western Digital is
headquartered in Irvine, California, USA.
“As Western Digital continues to expand our investments in
high-growth markets such as China, partnerships with
growth-oriented companies, such as Unisplendour Corporation, and
local governments are critically important,” said Western Digital
Chief Executive Officer Steve Milligan. “When launched later this
year, UNIS WDC will deliver advanced datacenter storage solutions
to customers in this dynamic market.”
Strategic Partner to China’s Big Data Industry
According to IDC, global data generation is estimated to be
doubling approximately every two years. In addition, organizations
focused on leveraging the huge data sets they manage with advanced
big data computing and analytical technologies, which are estimated
to represent a $32.4 billion market, growing at 27 percent
annually. IDC believes the data storage market as a part of big
data will experience 53 percent annual growth. UNIS WDC is designed
to help organizations manage the volume, velocity and variety of
data that is transforming the IT landscape and supporting storage
ecosystem.
Big data has become a driving force for social development and
industry progress. As information technology continues to develop,
the demand for big data storage and applications across all
industries has become increasingly important. China has established
a national information industry development strategy outline for
the next ten years to build advanced core technical systems and
accelerate progress in targeted areas, including data storage.
UNIS WDC will work with Chinese enterprises to customize big
data storage solutions that deliver significant business advantages
for customers in a range of industries, including financial
services, media and entertainment, astronomy and meteorology,
telecommunications, genetic science and healthcare.
“UNIS WDC aims to become the leader in comprehensive, secure and
controllable core big data storage technologies. We will practice
the ‘ingenious R&D’ concept, focusing on data reliability and
maximizing data security for our customers. UNIS WDC will deliver
innovation and optimization by following the standardization
principle. By leveraging existing, leading resources, the company
will offer data service solutions tailored to meet the needs of the
China market. We will work with partners to build a win-win
ecosystem and help drive innovation and growth of the big data
industry in China. Create the future with data!” said Gary Miao,
who has been identified to become Chief Executive Officer of UNIS
WDC.
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
offerings and 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. 29, 2016. 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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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160908005498/en/
Western Digital Corp.Media Contact:Jim
Pascoe408.717.6999jim.pascoe@wdc.comorInvestor Contact:Bob
Blair949.672.7834robert.blair@wdc.com
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