Early Buzz-In!- Seagate May Acquire OCZ

[rrplay]

*** Usually do NOT post rumors on the HTL front page, however an occasional crowbar will do,....going to keep an eye on this one.

Seagate probing OCZ acquisition

"Deal could bring both companies to the next level

Our industry sources came up with a rather interesting and hot story to close this scorching week. It turns out that hard drive maker Seagate is looking into the possibility of acquiring SSD maker OCZ.

It appears Seagate was not the only suitor, but acquiring this successful SSD maker would simply give Seagate a very strong presence in consumer, enthusiast and enterprise SSD markets. Seagate was late to enter the SSD market and OCZ has quite a bit of experience in the field. In the last few years it managed to carve out a respectable market share thanks to competitively priced consumer products as well as super-fast PCIe enterprise drives. The company always knew how to generate a lot of marketing buzz and in the meantime it even dropped its core RAM business in order to solely focus on SSDs.

The marriage of convenience would also serve OCZ quite well. The company will benefit from Seagate’s vast resources and avoid quite a few issues. On some occasions OCZ found itself in the rather awkward situation of being unable to meet demand. That they could sell more drives that they could churn out, but having a big cash cow behind it would definitely help overcome such issues.

Micron and a few other companies were also in talks with OCZ about a potential acquisition. The financial aspects of the deal could also prove quite interesting. Our sources believe that Seagate plans to offer much more than $308.5 million that Nasdaq values OCZ (OCZ). Just to put things in perspective Nasdaq values Seagate (STX) at $11.71 billion.

The OCZ brand will most likely continue to exist within Seagate and a scenario under which OCZ continues as a separate company owned by Seagate is also possible. The deal could be announced before the start of next week and OCZ didn’t want to comment it at press time.

Last modified on Thursday, 19 July 2012 13:35 "

[funkindrago]

Very interesting and strange at the same time... Why is Seagate planning if this is really true.

[Skataneric]

Well if Seagate follows the same business model as they do with their hard drives.... we could see SSDs for like 30% less then the mainstream market. Under a $1 a GB (without the aid of a sale or coupon) would be nice.

[BackDraft]

Don't know OCZ just purchased Indilinks or what ever you call them.

Seagate could have gobbled them up and gave OCZ a run for it's money on the non Sand force front.

But if it happens that would be good. maybe the reps at OCZ who keep on deleting my emails when I send them will lose their jobs and we may even see an OCZ drive or two reviewed here.

How do I know they are being deleted? I always send an email with a return receipt request. If an email is deleted without being read the return receipt is sent back as deleted not read.

[rrplay]

...
Seagate could have gobbled them up and gave OCZ a run for it's money on the non Sand force front.

Following the $$$$
OCZ shares surge on buyout report

"I'm hearing the same rumors ... I can only say that after the last quarter, when OCZ's cash situation became more challenging, they would be more willing to enter into a deal," FBN Securities analyst Shebly Seyrafi said.

and if a deal with either Seagate or Micron goes through we could be seeing some very competitive pricing as Eric mentioned.

"It is plausible for Seagate or Micron to buy an SSD company," Benchmark Capital analyst Gary Mobley said.

"Seagate has been late to address the flash storage market and needs to hedge its aging HDD business. Micron would benefit from owning OCZ by selling more NAND flash."

[Cella]

As much as WD and Seagate were (and are) the big players in the HDD market, Samsung made a very good drive in the last couple of generations prior to the Seagate purchase. I own F3 and F4 drives, and both actually have better transfer speeds than my Caviar Black drives. The Samsung drives also had fantastic longevity and reliability reports. That, of course, all ended when Seagate bought them....with Samsung drives now getting all of the same complaints as Seagate branded drives.

Since they ruined Samsung, they might as well ruin OCZ while they are at it (you know they will). Fortunately there is Patriot, Corsair, Mushkin, Crucial, Samsung (!) and those new drives from Plextor to fall back on. So, there will still be significant choices in the SSD market which is not cornered by two players.

[rrplay]

yeah no doubt that Samsung 1TB drive from the fall of 2010 was a solid choice and of course very reasonably priced. Still would be interesting to see how any entry into SSD mix from either Seagate and WD would make the market a bit more competitive price-wise. Been doing real good so far with my Patriot Drive and Kingston SSDs.

[Cella]

yeah no doubt that Samsung 1TB drive from the fall of 2010 was a solid choice and of course very reasonably priced. Still would be interesting to see how any entry into SSD mix from either Seagate and WD would make the market a bit more competitive price-wise. Been doing real good so far with my Patriot Drive and Kingston SSDs.

You know, it is scary that I know you are referring to the F3 that NewEgg put on Shell Shocked for $49. I picked up two at the time, btw.