OCZ Reaches Agreement With Toshiba For Acquisition In Bankruptcy Proceedings

We suspected that a deal was imminent, and now the details are being made public. OCZ, a company that engrossed gamers and power users for years with wicked-fast storage options, recently went bankrupt. Now, however, new life is being breathed into what's left by way of Toshiba. OCZ announced today that an agreement has been inked with Toshiba " to acquire substantially all of OCZ's assets in a chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding for $35M." What this essentially means is that Toshiba is acquiring the solid state drive business from OCZ for a huge discount, which actually may work out well for both parties.


OCZ has a large customer base who praises its products, and Toshiba is getting all of that recognition for a comparitive song. OCZ will continue to operate and serve existing and future customers during this process, and Toshiba will finance things in the interim to ensure that there's no gap in customer service. Here's a bit of the details from OCZ:

"This acquisition will provide Toshiba with access to OCZ's proprietary controllers, firmware and software, as well as the teams responsible for bringing these solutions to market, in addition to OCZ's established brand and sales channels. This strategic opportunity will bring critical controller IP and NAND supply all under one global organization, allowing for an even more robust and competitive solid state solution offering for all of OCZ's and Toshiba's mutual customers moving forward. "

"We are excited to participate in this opportunity. If our bid is successful, the combination of our leading NAND technology with OCZ's SSD expertise will allow us to further strengthen Toshiba's SSD business," said Mr. Seiichi Mori, Vice President of Toshiba's Semiconductor and Storage Company and Corporate Vice President of Toshiba. "We value OCZ's SSD business and technology in both the consumer and enterprise markets, and we are confident that it will reinforce our capabilities and help us to secure leadership in the SSD market."

If all goes well, the sale should close within 60 days. Hopefully, we'll see a revived and refreshed OCZ come to life next year under Toshiba's wing. The SSD business is thriving, but it's better off with more competition.