ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Caleido AG, the Swiss maker of the innovative online storage solution Wuala, announced today that it has merged with LaCie, the French manufacturer of external storage devices. Together they plan to revolutionize the storage industry by building a unique and sustainable cloud storage service.

“We’re very proud to announce that we join forces with LaCie,” says Dominik Grolimund, co-founder and CEO of Caleido AG. “This is a major leap forward for Wuala and will bring us to the next level. LaCie is the perfect match for us. Together we will realize the vision we embarked on more than four years ago while researching the basics of Wuala at the ETH Zurich: to build a reliable and secure cloud storage by integrating millions of devices around the world.”

“LaCie has a strong vision for where the future of storage is headed. This merge has allowed us to acquire a very innovative online storage solution that will transform our company from a leading hardware manufacturer to a comprehensive digital storage provider,” said Philippe Spruch, founder and CEO of LaCie. “LaCie believes storage versatility will influence the industry, and we look forward to providing our customers with new, cutting-edge ways to store their valuable data through our upcoming product offerings.”

Since the launch in August 2008, Wuala has gained substantial traction. Users have quickly adopted the software as a central hub for managing files online. Wuala’s rapid growth is not only attributed to its ease of use, but also to the unique way of protecting the user’s privacy. All files stored in Wuala are safely encrypted on the user’s computer before they are stored online. The users can then grant their peers, regardless if users or non-users, individual access to each folder. The user’s password never leaves the computer and therefore, no one – not even Wuala – can decrypt the user’s private files.

“We’re very excited about this. This merger will transform our start-up into a world-class digital storage provider,” says Luzius Meisser, co-founder and CTO of Caleido AG. “While other cloud operators invest in huge data centers consuming Megawatts for powering servers and cooling them, Wuala builds its reliable and secure cloud storage by harnessing idle resources at the edge of the Internet. This has many advantages for the end user and results in a product that unites the fast access of local storage with the convenience of online storage, namely secure off-site backups, and sharing and collaborating with friends, family, co-workers and even external partners due to our right management system.”

Research and development for Wuala’s award-winning technology began at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. After finishing their studies in 2007, Dominik Grolimund and Luzius Meisser founded their company, Caleido AG, located in Zurich.

The nine staff members that influence the development and operation of Wuala will remain with the company. They will join a team of LaCie members who will drive efforts to evolve the technology, adding new features and capabilities that will be integrated into a range of LaCie storage solutions.

About LaCie
Located in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong, LaCie is the creative manufacturer of computer peripherals for PC, Apple and Linux users. LaCie has differentiated its products through original designs and leading-edge technology. Established in Paris France and Portland Oregon in 1989, LaCie is listed on Euronext under FR0000054314 (LAC). For more information, visit www.lacie.com.

About Wuala
Wuala is an innovative online storage which allows its users to securely store, backup, and access files from anywhere and to share files easily with family, friends, and co-workers. Wuala is based on a revolutionary technology that was researched for the most part at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich). Users start with 1 GB of storage but can get as much as they want, either by trading idle disk space or by buying additional storage. All files are encrypted on the user’s computer and the user chooses who gets access to which folder. For more information, visit www.wuala.com and www.wuala.com/press.