Toshiba has bought OCZ Storage

[A Guy]

The Silicon Valley SSD maker is now part of Toshiba but will continue to operate independently

Toshiba has completed its acquisition of OCZ Storage Solutions, a failed Silicon Valley maker of solid-state drives, the company said Tuesday.

Solid-state drives are storage components built with flash memory that are intended to replace spinning disks in laptops, desktop computers and servers. They offer lower power consumption and better performance but are typically more expensive per gigabyte than hard drives.

OCZ said in November last year that it had defaulted on a loan agreement after its business was hit because it was having trouble buying enough flash memory chips for its drives.

Source

A Guy

 

[DustSailor]

I didn't see that one coming.

 

[michaelst]

I didn't see that one coming.

That's what she said.

 

[DavidE]

Hopefully this will be good.
More choices and competition are good imho.
The big 2 WD & Seagate have been buying up all the small HD guys ...
SSD/HD seem to be different manufacturers ... for whatever reason ...
Maybe this can help with innovation and competition ?
I like more choices

 

[A Guy]

OCZ Storage Solutions releases Vertex 460

OCZ just released the Vertex 460 SSD series with an architecture closer to the Vector 150. It comes with a lot of the same features yet, maybe a hint less performance, but all at a better price. Based on the Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller we test the 120 GB NAND flash memory based model. The end result is an SSD that is very fast and competitive in terms of pricing, combine that with endurance and you have gotten yourself the golden mix for the Vertex460.

Source

A Guy

 

[Britton30]

This should be good news for those who recently bought a OCZX SSD.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Should breath new life into the brand. I see better days ahead for OCZ.

 

[andrew129260]

I like toshiba as a brand. I have an external hard drive from them that is 6 years old. Still works great. Same with there tv's.

Glad they will bring back the life to ocz.

 

[Computer0304]

Well I guess that means now it is safe to buy OCZ ssds again.

 

[HerrKaLeun]

Well I guess that means now it is safe to buy OCZ ssds again.

your "again" implies it ever was safe. which we know it never was.

And they won't change all their firmware, hardware etc. from one day to another. So any of the SSD still will be the same crap for a while.

I'm not sure why Toshiba bought them, the technology is crap (unless you like bricking), the brand reputation is ruined and Toshiba itself has an excellent name.

And OCZ didn't even really have any technology, all NAND is purchases, so are the controllers and the firmware they wrote i wouldn't call worth anything.

 

[Computer0304]

I was talking for former OCZ customers.

 

[Britton30]

Well I guess that means now it is safe to buy OCZ ssds again.

your "again" implies it ever was safe. which we know it never was.

And they won't change all their firmware, hardware etc. from one day to another. So any of the SSD still will be the same crap for a while.

I'm not sure why Toshiba bought them, the technology is crap (unless you like bricking), the brand reputation is ruined and Toshiba itself has an excellent name.

And OCZ didn't even really have any technology, all NAND is purchases, so are the controllers and the firmware they wrote i wouldn't call worth anything.

You are entitled to your opinion. Others who have and use OCZ products love them, I 've never had any issues with them. "We" know it has always been safe to buy OCZ, maybe you had a bad experience which is isolated. Under Toshiba, the largest NAND producer in the world, OCZ now has an unlimited, cheaper, NAND supply which is, ipso facto, now made in-house.

 

[HerrKaLeun]

You are entitled to your opinion. Others who have and use OCZ products love them, I 've never had any issues with them. "We" know it has always been safe to buy OCZ, maybe you had a bad experience which is isolated. Under Toshiba, the largest NAND producer in the world, OCZ now has an unlimited, cheaper, NAND supply which is, ipso facto, now made in-house.

So they went bankrupt becasue their products were so good? Or were costumers just too stupid to realize what they miss?

I never owned one, but did my research before i bought one and most costumers have internet and also came to the same conclusion I did. Hence they are out of business. The market of people wanting to upgrade FW all the time, occasonally brick their drives etc. is limited. Most users just want to use their PC and not image the OS to upgrade firmware, or replace the drive under warranty and get blamed by manufacturer. When I turned on my PC this morning my intention was to read the news, and believe the majority of users and IT people wanted the same.

I'm very very conservative, I would buy Intel or Samsung SSD even if they are $5 more expensive or 1% slower in an artificial rigged test. But the down time I don't have more than makes up for that.

I think bankruptcy is court-proven evidence that the product was not competitive. Apparently your are in a minority.

 

[Britton30]

Perhaps reading the article would help. They didn't go bankrupt, but files a Chapter 11 though, Toshiba made an offer last year. They lost money because sales got real good and they had no good supplier form NAND chips, which Toshiba takes care of now.

 

[Computer0304]

Well I guess thats good news for the company too. But won't performance change for either the better or the worse because they will change their NAND provider to Toshiba?

 

[HerrKaLeun]

Perhaps reading the article would help. They didn't go bankrupt, but files a Chapter 11 though, Toshiba made an offer last year. They lost money because sales got real good and they had no good supplier form NAND chips, which Toshiba takes care of now.

I'm not a law or economics expert, but chapter 11 means you ran out of money and can't pay your bills anymore... how is this not bankrupt? the only difference to chapter 7 (Liquidation) is that under some court rules you can still operate while lenders can't just liquidate the assetts to get money. And the lenders all agree on a plan to lose the least money. typically chapter 11 is done (as opposed to 7) if the overall value for the lenders coudl be higher if they keep operating as opposed to liquidation. both (as well as all other chapters) are based on bankruptcy, meaning running out of funds.

In this case the lenders probably got lucky in Toshiba buying the assetts. If toshiba would not have shown up then the company either resurrects itself (unlikley) or the lenders get impatient and sue for liquidation. the lenders have different prioritues on how they get money, shareholders ususally have the lowest priority. Typically chapter 11 leads to chapter 7 (as seen with circuit city etc.) unless someone is interested in the assetts. Since under chapter 11 the vendors they owe money to get stiffed (court order prevents them from collecting money) they often stop supplying (the court can't force them to supply new goods and understandabley they fear to get stiffed again). So yes, once OCZ filed chapter 11, no NAND or other vendor would sell them anything without upfont payment, so without Toshiba they would be history very quickly.

And they lost money because sales got really good? So they could have just sold less and made a profit? I hope you don't work in economics...

 

[Britton30]

Perhaps reading the article would help. They didn't go bankrupt, but files a Chapter 11 though, Toshiba made an offer last year. They lost money because sales got real good and they had no good supplier form NAND chips, which Toshiba takes care of now.

I'm not a law or economics expert, but chapter 11 means you ran out of money and can't pay your bills anymore... how is this not bankrupt? the only difference to chapter 7 (Liquidation) is that under some court rules you can still operate while lenders can't just liquidate the assetts to get money. And the lenders all agree on a plan to lose the least money. typically chapter 11 is done (as opposed to 7) if the overall value for the lenders coudl be higher if they keep operating as opposed to liquidation. both (as well as all other chapters) are based on bankruptcy, meaning running out of funds.

In this case the lenders probably got lucky in Toshiba buying the assetts. If toshiba would not have shown up then the company either resurrects itself (unlikley) or the lenders get impatient and sue for liquidation. the lenders have different prioritues on how they get money, shareholders ususally have the lowest priority. Typically chapter 11 leads to chapter 7 (as seen with circuit city etc.) unless someone is interested in the assetts. Since under chapter 11 the vendors they owe money to get stiffed (court order prevents them from collecting money) they often stop supplying (the court can't force them to supply new goods and understandabley they fear to get stiffed again). So yes, once OCZ filed chapter 11, no NAND or other vendor would sell them anything without upfont payment, so without Toshiba they would be history very quickly.

And they lost money because sales got really good? So they could have just sold less and made a profit? I hope you don't work in economics...

I see, so you didn't read the article. And I can see you are definitely no law or economics expert, you didn't have to mention that. I'm not either but read to inform myself against brash ignorance and wild assumptions.

 

[HerrKaLeun]

I see, so you didn't read the article. And I can see you are definitely no law or economics expert, you didn't have to mention that. I'm not either but read to inform myself against brash ignorance and wild assumptions.

You mean the article where it says they continued to lose money quarter after quarter and defaulted on a loan? I'm not sure what country you are from, but in the US defaulting on loans means bankruptcy proceedings begin either initiated by the debtor (they are required to start them on their own) or the lender (if they are interested in getting any of their money). Most companies don't default on loans becuase they just don't feel like paying, but because they ran out of cash. Or in other words, are bankrupt. As soon as a company defaults on loans, no supplier will deliver any goods without upfront payment or some other secured means of payment (i.e. guaranteed by a bank).

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Only time will tell gentlemen, OCZ has a challenge ahead and of course if they keep things the same it's futile. I could almost guarantee you much smarter minds will be watching over the re-launch of this brand and it's products and I look forward to that, I may still never pull the trigger on more of their products or I may.......ya never know. Some will always stay away that have been burned and can never forgive but we all benefit from choice and options......ala Intel vs AMD. Viva la choice !

 

[Britton30]

They've already sent to market SSDs with Toshiba NAND inside and at a little lower price. As I said before they now have a virtually unlimited source now whereas former suppliers didn't keep up. Toshiba Is the world's largest supplier of NAND to many OEMs and I suspect they will favor OCZ now, whad'dya think?