brk thought you would like to know I am feeling ok right now.....I dug up a little something on that xharddrive deal (sounds like somethink jZ might like)........in this news release it talks about the pending deal which turned out to be go2net and says another is pending with an isp.....this business concept of free hard disk space is a winner....dbusiness.com
January 26, 2000
X:drive steers toward going public
By Michael Fisher, dbusiness.com
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 26 (dbusiness.com) -- X:drive will close a third round of funding on
March 1, and it plans to offer stock to the public by the spring or early summer.
PC Data Online ranked X:drive as the 354th most visited Internet site in terms of unique visitors
for the week ending Jan. 15, with 435,000 visitors. That placed it above its nearest competitor in
the online data-storage field, DriveWay, which was ranked 751st with 239,000 unique visitors.
Santa Monica, Calif.-based X:drive is an Internet hard drive service. Once downloaded, this
virtual hard drive can be accessed though the Internet by going to www.xdrive.com. It works like
an A, C, D or E drive if a connection to the Internet is established.
The Internet hard drive allows users to make some files available to associates and friends -- in
the public portion of an X:drive box. Other files can be kept secure in the private section of the
drive.
Because the drive can be accessed from anywhere in the world via the Internet, it reduces or
eliminates the need for floppy or zip disks. Users can get 25 megabytes of storage free.
Additional space can be purchased. The cost for 100 megabytes is $9.95 a month and for one
gigabyte the cost is $19.95 a month.
"Skip the Download" is a feature that lets users download files, music, video, software or any
other file directly to their Internet X:drive and avoid tying up their PC with downloads. Later,
the file can be downloaded to the user's personal computer at a convenient time.
In an agreement with CNET, X:drive will make its "Skip the Download" feature and 100
megabytes of free storage space available to CNET's 9 million users. San Francisco-based
CNET has 250,000 freeware, shareware and demo titles at its download site.
CNET racks up 1 million downloads a day. It's expected that this partnership will add 20,000
to 25,000 new members to X:drive each day, the company said. The CNET program will begin
Feb. 1.
As part of this deal, CNET invested an undisclosed amount in X:drive. Also, X:drive will
market its services across the CNET network.
An alliance with Kinko's, which was implemented Jan. 1, makes it possible for users to access
their X:drive from any of Kinko's 970 locations.
Through deals like these and a new advertising campaign, X:drive expects its current member
count of 387,000 to expand to more than a million in March and 2.5 million in June.
"In addition to growing our customer base, we're expanding business-to-business
opportunities to small businesses and Fortune 500 companies," said Brett O'Brien CEO and
founder. One deal that O'Brien expects to announce soon will make X:drive a virtual file server
for a major firm's 160,000 employees. X:drive will be paid per employee and expects the deal
to generate $1 million in annual sales.
The next agreements X:drive will announce will be with a big portal and a large ISP, according
to O'Brien.
"We're packed to the rafters and taking the building across street to expand for
accommodating another 50 employees," said O'Brien of X:drive's growth. He expects this new
building to be filled by June, doubling the company's size. O'Brien said the company is
already in negotiations for a larger building also in Santa Monica.
A new marketing campaign has begun. It includes advertising in trade publications like "Red
Herring," radio ads and billboards painted on buses in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New
York. Also featured are building ads in San Francisco and New York, and telephone kiosks in
New York.
"Right now its about building the brand," said O'Brien of these advertising efforts.
No ads appear on the X:drive Website yet. This revenue generating component will begin in
March.
The company launched a version for the Windows NT operating system to add to the
Windows 95 and 98 versions. The Mac version is being developed.
GeoCities founder David Bohnett joined the X:drive board of directors in September.
GeoCities was sold to Yahoo! Inc. in 1999 for nearly $4 billion. Bohnett's Baroda Ventures
has taken an undisclosed stake in X:drive.
Possible candidates to serve as underwriters for its IPO are Goldman Sachs; Alex Brown; Wit
Capital; Morgan Stanley; First Boston; and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
COMPANY: X:drive
INDUSTRY: Software.
PRODUCT: Internet hard drive service.
YEAR FOUNDED: 1999
MANAGEMENT: Brett O'Brien, founder and CEO, formerly co-founder of a marketing and
public relations company.
EMPLOYEES: 52; X:drive expects the number to double by June.
INVESTORS: Series B funding of $20 million from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Wit Capital
Group Inc., and eCompanies Venture Group L.P. CNET also has an undisclosed equity
position, as does Baroda Ventures.
STRATEGIC PARTNERS: Kinko's, CNet, College Club and Snowball.
CUSTOMERS: 387,000 individual members. Company says the number should surpass 1
million in March.
COMPETITORS: Driveway, FreeDrive, i-drive
REVENUE: "We're not speaking about that yet. But expect it to be over $8 million this year."
WHAT KEEPS THEM AWAKE AT NIGHT: "My son Nicholas. He's 15 months. (And) to
make sure we continue to stay focused and pull away from our competition and continue to be
aggressive."
CONTACT: Chris DeWolfe, 310-589-6848, chris@xdrive.com, 3002 Pennsylvania Ave.
Santa Monica, CA |
