Citrix Completed Acquisition of ShareFile

Citrix Systems, Inc. has completed the acquisition of ShareFile, provider of secure, cloud-based data storage, sharing and collaboration.

The ShareFile product line can securely store, sync and share business documents and files, both inside and outside the company. ShareFile’s centralized cloud storage capability also allows users to share files across multiple devices and access them from any location.

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

From Personal Computers to Personal Clouds
In the PC Era, data was typically stored on a single personal computer, accessed from a physical office, and shared via flash drives or email. As the industry transitions to the Cloud Era, an increasingly mobile workforce is demanding easy access to data that is untethered from offices and devices, and easy to share and collaborate securely with others. These trends are giving rise to the concept of a personal cloud – the aggregation of apps, data, preferences and friends that are unique to each individual employee, and move seamlessly across any device or location.

Based on industry estimates, Citrix expects the personal cloud market to be a multi-billion dollar opportunity by 2015, fueled by trends such as cloud computing, faster bandwidth, email limitations and the consumerization of IT. Citrix is delivering ‘follow-me-desktops’ and ‘follow-me-apps’ to more than 100 million people every day, across a variety of business and consumer devices. With the acquisition of ShareFile, Citrix is adding ‘follow-me-data’ capabilities to its portfolio, allowing business users to access their documents and files from anywhere, share them across multiple devices and collaborate easily with colleagues.

Citrix Cloud Data Strategy
The acquisition of ShareFile brings to Citrix a new technology platform and a team with experience in data services and cloud computing. ShareFile CEO, Jesse Lipson, will become vice president and general manager of the newly-formed Data Sharing product group at Citrix. This group will be responsible for the ShareFile product line, as well as enabling the Citrix ‘follow-me-data’ strategy.

Taking a platform approach to data will enable Citrix to:

• Make common data services like search, share, sync, secure, authenticate, open and preview available to a wide range of applications, services and use cases through a set of open APIs.
• Extend secure data sharing services to new and existing apps stored in public and private clouds and accessed from millions of different business and consumer devices.
• Connect data to the way people collaborate today, ensuring that the right documents and files are accessible when needed, and up to date.

Citrix will reveal more of its plans for ShareFile and the follow-me-data platform strategy at Citrix Synergy Barcelona, October 26-28.

Mark Templeton, President and CEO, Citrix Systems, Inc., said: "This is a highly strategic acquisition that enables Citrix to deliver all three of the critical components for the personal cloud – collaboration, apps and data – with amazing accessibility and productivity on any device. Our follow-me-data strategy means data will be shared (1) across people, (2) across apps and (3) across devices. As customers and partners build on this platform, they will be able to easily add follow-me-data services to their software, leverage the data that other apps store there, and instantly inherit all the management, mobility and scalability that’s in the ShareFile infrastructure."

Jesse Lipson, CEO, ShareFile, said: "Joining the Citrix team will provide a great home to the thousands of ShareFile corporate customers, serving millions of users worldwide. The combination of Citrix and ShareFile will also help spur incredible new innovation around the role of data in the new Cloud Era workplace."