Toshiba Acquires OCZ's Assets for $35 million
by Kristian Vättö on December 3, 2013 4:50 AM EST
Following last week's news of OCZ's bankruptcy filing, it's now official that Toshiba is acquiring OCZ's assets for $35 million cash. The agreement includes all of OCZ's client and consumer SSD business (controller IP, firmware, software and employees) and the acquisition is expected to be completed within the next 60 days. Unfortunately there is no official word on the fate of OCZ's other product groups (such as power supplies and cooling) but I've asked OCZ to clarify that and will update this post once I hear back.
The acquisition agreement includes a condition that Toshiba must provide OCZ with sufficient DIP (Debtor-in-Possession) financing in order for OCZ to keep the business going for the time being. In other words, OCZ's will continue to do business as normally but the press release doesn't reveal anything about what happens when the acquisition is completed. OCZ did tell us that warranties will be honored and their support status will remain unchanged but I'm waiting for OCZ to confirm that this also applies to the post-acquisition period (i.e. Toshiba would take responsibility of OCZ's warranties).
I'm glad that the deal went through because OCZ has a substantial amount of know-how when it comes to SSDs. OCZ had no troubles creating a high performance SSD, which speaks for talented engineering, but reliability was always their stumbling block. OCZ made the mistake rushing products to the market with only little validation but I'm confident that this will change under Toshiba's management. Validation is often the toughest part for smaller OEMs because it's an expensive and time consuming process -- there is simply not enough capital to validate the product for a full year like Intel has done in the past. With Toshiba the capital or manpower for a thorough validation process should no longer be an issue, especially because Toshiba has proven to be reliable in the past.
For someone like Toshiba, $35 million is a drop in the ocean. Compared to OCZ's current market cap ($7.68M), even $35 million is a good deal but bear in mind that back in 2011 OCZ paid $32 million for Indilinx alone. Now Toshiba is getting OCZ along with the former Indilinx and PLX for about the same price. It doesn't help that a little over year ago when OCZ acquisitions rumors were at their hottest, I heard figures of up to $1 billion being offered to OCZ but the company turned down the offers. It's easy to say now but OCZ should have struck while the iron was hot.
Either way, I'm eagerly waiting to see how the acquisition will play out. I doubt we will see the OCZ brand any longer, but it will be interesting to see OCZ's influence on Toshiba's future SSDs.
Source: OCZ Press Release
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DarkStryke - Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - link
That was before OCZ bought the brand, and subsequently turned it's reputation from some of the best power supplies in the enthusiast circles to another re-brander of cheap Chinese garbage.C'DaleRider - Friday, December 13, 2013 - link
Ummm....no, PCP&C NEVER made a single power supply. Their power supplies were manufactured by either Win-Tact (Turbo-Cools) or Seasonic (Silencers). Sparkle was the first OEM to make Silencers for PCP&C, btw.PCP&C never made a darned thing, just sold rebranded units.
Guspaz - Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - link
Their DRAM business is probably not worth much because it doesn't exist :) They got out of that market entirely years ago.repoman27 - Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - link
The fate of the PLX and Oxford Semiconductor divisions is the most intriguing to me. Their PCIe switches and direct-attached storage controllers are found pretty much everywhere on motherboards and in external enclosures. What other sources even exist for those components?DanNeely - Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - link
If they are ubiquitous, they'll survive in some form since they represent a guaranteed revenue stream for whoever ends up holding them when the dust settles.Kristian Vättö - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
OCZ did not acquire whole PLX, only a team of ~40 engineers focusing on SoCs, firmware and software. It's likely that most of PLX' business will continue to operate normally.Bromsin - Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - link
I have been using OCZ PSU's for a long time now. They have always been reliable and never had a problem when needed to RMA them. Also own an OCZ Vertex SSD and have been very happy with it.I really hope Toshiba keeps the OCZ brand intact with all their assets. Such a shame a great company like OCZ had to fall in the recessive times.
Bob Todd - Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - link
You do realize you almost made a joke by sticking "always been reliable" and "when needed to RMA them" in the same sentence right? Your PSUs weren't reliable. They died and you had to RMA them under warranty, which for their junk units was 3 years or less. I had a few of their ModXStream PSUs that were garbage. 2 out of 3 died in less than 2 years. They didn't go under because of the recession. They went under because they were blasting out product after product with poor validation and QC.blanarahul - Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - link
Yes. Yes. Hell yes. I am all for a properly and extensively validated Vector 150.Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - link
They turned down $1billion? haha they sell nothing but garbage... they should ahve taken the money and run. At any rate they are getting justice now.