OpenText Expands Content Suite with Acquisition of HighTail

February 14, 2018

A leading Canadian IT company has just made a move that will open up their services to millions of more users.

OpenText has announced that they have acquired Hightail, which was formerly known as YouSendIt. The move will allow the Waterloo-based OpenText to reach HighTail’s current 5.5 million customers around the globe.

HighTail is a cloud service used for file sharing and creative collaboration. Users can synchronize and digitally sign files they send to others, all through a secure platform. The California-based business was founded in 2004 and rebranded to HighTail in 2013.

“The acquisition of Hightail underscores our commitment to delivering differentiated content solutions in the cloud that enable marketers and creative professionals to share, produce, and securely collaborate on digital content,” said Mark J. Barrenechea, OpenText’s Vice Chairman, CEO and CTO. “We are pleased to welcome Hightail customers and employees to OpenText today.”

HighTail’s 5.5 million customer base spans enterprise accounts, paid subscribers and individual customers. At its peak, hightail had over 40 million customers, but those waned as the file transfer ecosystem evolved with the advent of Dropbox and Google Drive.

It looks as though HighTail will continue as a standalone company, though OpenText will begin integrating their services into their own content suite.

“I am excited about expanding Hightail capabilities as well as integrating Hightail into OpenText Content Suite, Documentum, Core, and Media Management, allowing our customers to seamlessly and securely collaborate with external trading partners and vendors,” added Barrenechea.

HighTail has raised over $90 million since being founded. This acquisition is just the latest by OpenText, the highest profile of which would have been their purchase of Dell EMC’s Enterprise content division. That acquisition was worth $1.62 billion and close at the beginning of 2017. They also acquired Guidance Software for $222 million in the middle of 2017.