Indilinx, the corporate liable for designing the Barefoot SSD controller , has today agreed at hand its future over to the capable lads and women of OCZ Technology in exchange for $32 million in common OCZ stock. The corporations have announced a definitive agreement for the chipmaker’s acquisition, which OCZ is performing which will gobble up a collection of 20 yummy patents and patent applications while also expanding its presence in embedded, hybrid storage and industrial markets. Indilinx will continue its current operations, including providing controllers and firmware to other OEMs, and OCZ too will continue to exploit others’ wares, namedropping its long-term partner SandForce as a few of the outside companies so as to be supplying it with SSD goodies. So it’s business as usual unless and until this partnership spawns some lightning-fast combination of software and hardware that forces us to listen to that cursed “exclusive” word again. Ah well, better of luck of luck to them.
Addition of High Performance Controller Technology and Firmware is predicted to Accelerate Storage Technology Innovation and Expand Product PortfolioSAN JOSE, CA-March 14, 2011-OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ),a number one provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to obtain Indilinx Co., Ltd, a privately held fabless provider of flash controller silicon and software for SSDs.
Indilinx is headquartered in South Korea and currently sells its line of flash controllers to SSD manufacturers and Tier One OEMs to be used in a broad array of goods addressing multiple markets, including embedded and industrial in addition to laptops and PCs. Indilinx controllers were deployed within OCZ’s SSD products since December 2008, and are currently featured within the Z-Drive series of PCIe-based SSDs. Indilinx’s technology is predicted to enable OCZ to expand its presence into the embedded, hybrid storage, and industrial markets.
OCZ will gain substantial intellectual property from Indilinx including approximately 20 patents and patent applications related exclusively to the business as portion of the transaction. As an example, the purchase is predicted to increase OCZ’s capabilities with advanced controller technology including Tinkerbell™, a high performance eMMC 4.4 x controller that replaces SSDs in consumer electronic devices corresponding to smartphones, tablet PCs, GPS units, and netbooks. Tinkerbell improves the user experience in consumer mobile devices for applications comparable to internet browsing, gaming, social networking applications, emails, and multimedia play.
Following its acquisition by OCZ, Indilinx will continue to provide and provide its line of controller products to SSD manufacturers and OEMs on a worldwide basis. The Indilinx controller business, and its 45 employees, will remain intact under the leadership of Bumsoo Kim, the founder and President of Indilinx, and Hyunmo Chung, Indilinx’s Chief Technology Officer. OCZ will continue its own R&D program to develop new proprietary technologies and products to expand its own solid state drive offerings.
The Indilinx acquisition notwithstanding, OCZ plans to continue utilizing controllers from other manufacturers including long-term partner SandForce, who currently supplies SSD processors for quite a lot of the corporate’s SSD products including the Vertex 2, Agility 2, RevoDrive, customizable Deneva enterprise drives, and the approaching Vertex 3 family of SSDs.
“This transaction is a vital step in OCZ’s strategy and significantly enhances our ability to capitalize at the worldwide demand for Solid State Drives,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. “This mix brings together two organizations which can be committed to advancing solid state drive design, and give a special opportunity for OCZ to extend both customer and shareholder value in addition to expand our reach into embedded markets.”
Under the terms of the agreement, OCZ will acquire Indilinx for about $32 million of OCZ common stock. Indilinx shareholders will own approximately 9.5% of the OCZ shares outstanding after issuance of the shares. The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of every company, and is predicted to shut within 30 days, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. OCZ expects the transaction to become accretive to its earnings per share toward the tip of this fiscal year on a non-GAAP basis, excluding acquisition-related expenses, restructuring charges, and amortization of intangibles.
Ryan Petersen, CEO, can be a featured speaker on the Roth Capital 23rd Annual Orange County Growth Stock Conference today at 5:30 pm pacific time. To hear the presentation and look at the accompanying slides, please visit the investor relations events portion of OCZ website at www.ocztechnology.com and click the link provided for the net cast.
Merriman Capital, Inc., an entirely-owned subsidiary of Merriman Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:MERR), served as OCZ’s exclusive financial advisor for the transaction.
About Indilinx
Indilinx is a number one technology provider for storage systems in line with NAND flash memory. Indilinx products and solutions comprise advanced solid state drive controllers, reference designs, and software which permit the rapid development and deployment of high performance solid state drives. For additional info, visit www.indilinx.com.About OCZ Technology Group, Inc.
Founded in 2002, San Jose, CA-based OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (OCZ), is a pacesetter within the design, manufacturing, and distribution of high performance and reliable Solid-State Drives (SSDs) and premium computer components. OCZ has built on its expertise in high-speed memory to become a pace-setter within the SSD market, a technology that competes with traditional rotating magnetic harddrive drives (HDDs). SSDs are faster, more reliable, generate less heat and use significantly less power than the HDDs utilized in the vast majority of computers today. Besides SSD technology, OCZ also offers high performance components for computing devices and systems, including enterprise-class power management products in addition to leading-edge computer gaming solutions. For additional info, please visit: www.ocztechnology.com.
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