Toshiba completes acquisition of OCZ Technology’s SSD business

Toshiba Corp., one of the world’s largest manufacturer of NAND flash memory, early on Wednesday said that it had finalized the purchase of substantially all assets of OCZ Technology Group, making it a wholly owned subsidiary and Toshiba Group Company. From now on, the maker of solid-state drives will be called OCZ Storage Solutions and will operate independently.

“We are very excited to be part of the Toshiba family where we will continue to develop new and unique solid-state storage technologies that position the new entity as a market leader,” said Ralph Schmitt, chief executive officer of OCZ Storage Solutions.

The transaction transfers OCZ’s enterprise and client SSD businesses to Toshiba. The acquisition saves OCZ from extinction as a result of bankruptcy and enables the established OCZ brand to continue in full force with a current product portfolio that includes Serial ATA and PCI Express consumer drives for high-performance and mainstream applications, and SATA, SAS and PCIe enterprise drives supported by virtualization, cache and acceleration software.

The acquisition by Toshiba provides OCZ with a steady supply of various advanced NAND flash memory, which will allow the company to serve clients with different requirements. Besides, it will also give OCZ access to Toshiba’s proprietary controllers, firmware and software to provide both client and enterprise customers with innovative and cost-effective solid-state storage solutions. Finally, with Toshiba’s financial support, OCZ will be able to better serve customers worldwide.

“The acquisition of OCZ further expands our solid-state storage capabilities and represents Toshiba’s commitment to this high-growth area,” said Seiichi Mori, vice president of Toshiba's semiconductor and storage company and corporate vice president of Toshiba.  “Our goal is to offer a leading edge portfolio of solid state solutions to address the storage challenges faced by both client and enterprise customers, and the acquisition of OCZ is an ideal addition to our team in realizing this strategy.”

As a Toshiba Group Company, OCZ Storage Solutions will continue to maintain its established worldwide sales channels. OCS’s headquarters will remain in San Jose, California, with strategic design centers located in Irvine (California), Tel Aviv (Israel), and Abingdon (UK).

OCZ Technology Group is also in the process of going through a bidding procedure for the power management business (known under PC Power & Cooling brand) and expects to close a transaction within the next few weeks.

KitGuru Says: It is good to see OCZ brand staying on the market. Nonetheless, the integration of OCZ into Toshiba has not begun yet and going forward a number of changes can be expected. While the consumer-class SSD lines will likely remain independent, it makes a lot of sense for Toshiba and OCZ to more or less unify the enterprise-class offerings to avoid unnecessary internal competition.

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