OCZ Technology May Be an Acquisition Target for Micron or Seagate

From X-bit Labs: OCZ Technology Group, a leading manufacturer of solid-state drives for consumers and enterprises, may be an acquisition target for Micron Technology and Seagate Technology, a market rumour claims. There may be circumstances under which OCZ might be acquired, but at present OCZ is just growing too fast to need to be taken over.

The rumour about incoming buyout by Seagate, the world's largest maker of hard drives, was first published by Fudzilla web-site and then republished by Reuters news-agency. Both sources cited market analysts, who noted challenging situation with cash at OCZ, which in the past caused inabilities to supply products in volume. Micron Technology, a leading maker of NAND flash memory used on SSDs, is also named as a company interested in OCZ.

"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," said Shebly Seyrafi, an analyst with FBN Securities.

Seagate is clearly late to market of solid-state drives and will potentially needs a partner who has a wide family of various solid-state drives. In fact, there are not a lot of such companies on the market nowadays, it may be easily said that OCZ is a unique company in a unique position. What should be kept in mind is that Seagate and Western Digital own a huge portfolio of patents on various storage technologies. Potentially, both can sue SSD makers or attempt an unfriendly takeover.

Micron has its own family of SSDs for consumers and enterprises and also owns Crucial, a retail supplier of DRAM- and NAND flash-based products. Moreover, OCZ is one of Micron's largest customers and therefore a rather natural fit. On the other hand, Micron is about to acquire Elpida Memory and Rexchip Semiconductor, which will slowdown its abilities to absorb other companies.

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