Hitachi turns to external storage, acquires Fabrik

Fabrik's (re)drive, the first external drive made partially of bamboo.

(Credit: Fabrik)

When I reviewed Fabrik's SimpleTech Signature Mini and SimpleTech (re)drive external hard drives a while ago, I liked its tasteful designs. As it turns out, my taste wasn't so peculiar.

Hitachi on Monday announced its decision to acquire Fabrik, a privately held supplier of personal and professional storage solutions.

If you haven't heard of Fabrik, this is because it has been selling external storage under two better-known brands: G-Technology and SimpleTech. CNET has reviewed several products launched under each brand.

Although the financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, Hitachi made it clear that Fabrik's business will remain intact and form the core of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies' new external-storage business.

Going forward, you will still find Fabrik external storage in both G-Technology and SimpleTech brands. The combined company plans to offer external-storage solutions based on both regular hard drives and solid-state drives.

The acquisition seems a natural move for Hitachi. For the Japanese company, it means an expansion into a market for external-storage hardware currently dominated by Seagate and Western Digital. For California-based Fabrik, it means broadening its market horizons, though it probably also means limiting the internal hard drives for its external storage solution to those of Hitachi.