Seagate to buy OCZ

Early reports are suggesting that the hard drive giant Seagate may be looking to take over OCZ. Seagate was apparently not the only contender to take over OCZ but are the contender who have emerged successfully.

Seagate has been late to enter the SSD market with its Momentus XT SSD hybrid drives and its enterprise aimed Pulsar SSDs. Yet OCZ is relatively experienced in the SSD market, having introduced four generations of its Vertex SSD line as well as establishing itself pretty firmly in the enterprise market with its Z-Drive PCIe based SSDs among many other SSD products.

OCZ even dropped their core RAM business to focus almost solely on SSDs, but they still dabble in other things like power supplies – although they just rebrand OEM versions from reputable power supply manufacturers like Seasonic.

The deal seems like a smart move for both companies. For OCZ with Seagate’s financial backing it could significantly ramp up production and avoid demand shortfalls. While Seagate would benefit from a much more mature SSD portfolio.

Micron were one of the other contenders to buy OCZ, a company valued at $308 million on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Seagate are expected to pay much more than OCZ’s $308 million value, but it will still be a splash in the ocean for Seagate, a company worth $1171 million.

Once the take over is complete OCZ will probably remain as an independent brand name and company but operate under the control of Seagate. OCZ refused to comment to the press. OCZ share prices are currently rising sharply with news of the take over.

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