Wednesday, November 27th 2013
OCZ Filing for Bankruptcy, Announces Offer from Toshiba to Purchase Assets
OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that on November 25, 2013, it received notices that Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. ("Hercules") took exclusive control of the Company's depository accounts at Silicon Valley Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association. As set forth in the Company's recent SEC filings, Hercules and the Company are parties to a loan and security agreement. As previously reported, the Company is not in compliance with certain of the operating ratios and covenants in the loan agreement. As a result of such action and pursuant to Hercules' written instruction, the depository institutions disbursed the cash in the Company's respective accounts to accounts under the control of Hercules.
The Company has received an offer from Toshiba Corporation to acquire substantially all of the Company's assets in a bankruptcy proceeding. The parties have substantially completed negotiations on an asset purchase agreement and OCZ believes that all the material terms have been agreed to.
The agreement is subject to various conditions: the preservation of the value of the business, including the retention of employees, the negotiation and execution of definitive documentation, the filing of bankruptcy petitions by the Company and certain of its subsidiaries, Toshiba's offer being accepted by the bankruptcy court as the highest and best offer under the circumstances after an auction process conducted under the relevant provisions of the United States Bankruptcy Code, and other customary closing conditions. The Company expects to file a petition for bankruptcy shortly after completing final documentation with Toshiba and Hercules, and to conduct the court-supervised auction process to attempt to maximize the value of the Company's assets and operations in an orderly process. More details will become available when the Company files its petition for bankruptcy.
If the Company is not able to agree to final documentation with Toshiba, the Company expects to imminently file a petition for bankruptcy and liquidate.
The Company has received an offer from Toshiba Corporation to acquire substantially all of the Company's assets in a bankruptcy proceeding. The parties have substantially completed negotiations on an asset purchase agreement and OCZ believes that all the material terms have been agreed to.
The agreement is subject to various conditions: the preservation of the value of the business, including the retention of employees, the negotiation and execution of definitive documentation, the filing of bankruptcy petitions by the Company and certain of its subsidiaries, Toshiba's offer being accepted by the bankruptcy court as the highest and best offer under the circumstances after an auction process conducted under the relevant provisions of the United States Bankruptcy Code, and other customary closing conditions. The Company expects to file a petition for bankruptcy shortly after completing final documentation with Toshiba and Hercules, and to conduct the court-supervised auction process to attempt to maximize the value of the Company's assets and operations in an orderly process. More details will become available when the Company files its petition for bankruptcy.
If the Company is not able to agree to final documentation with Toshiba, the Company expects to imminently file a petition for bankruptcy and liquidate.
59 Comments on OCZ Filing for Bankruptcy, Announces Offer from Toshiba to Purchase Assets
Im not quite sure what sort of assets OCZ has that Toshiba might want (ssd controllers possibly?) as Toshiba already make their own SSDs.
It isn't surprising Toshiba would buy them though.
These days every hardware manufacturer and their mothers want to sell SSDs. If anything, Toshiba is buying OCZ simply to take a competitor out of the market and to keep someone else from buying them and selling their SSDs.
When you only sell 2 product lines compared to competitors who do cases, peripherals, ram, fans & other products. The stuff you make has to be better than the competitions while remaining very competitively priced to make sure you hold onto that top spot and give people a reason to buy your products.
OCZ PSUs were pretty good from what i hear but they werent amazing or outstanding and their performance sure as hell didnt put them above the crowd. Throw in all the customers who OCZ let down in the SSD department and its a recipe for disaster because the customers are going to go out there and tell everyone else about how unreliable your products are and people will stay away from you.
OCZ simply didnt have any profitable product lines to fall back on - the PSU market is already swamped with other big names, Corsair, Enermax, Antec Thermaltake - etc etc etc. OCZ just didnt stand a chance.
Its like opening up a chinese take away and only selling pot noodle. youre never gonna turn a profit unless you expand - add more dishes to your repertoire, hire the right chefs who can cook more dishes etc etc.
He was not just the soul of that company, he was that company.
Yes, he allegedly did some shady shit...all the way from the beginnings in his garage up to when he fled. I remember one individual I used to speak with back in the early days that knew him personally and held a grudge against him since the very beginning because of his 'unique attitude' and way of doing things...turns out he was probably right.
That said, he pushed the envelope on both emerging tech and binning of existing tech. Everything from the first overclocked ram (and seizing on new/certain types unique properties including the repurposing of Winbond bh-5), some of the first good air coolers, the failed 'simple' phase-change cooler, acquiring PCP&C, up to realizing sandforce for what it was before anyone else as well as trying to add their mindset to indilinx controllers.
That was the whole appeal of OCZ: a 'big-enough' company that they could round up and seperate elite tech and push it forward first to enthusiasts. When they lost that, and with it the (overwhelming support of the) enthusiast community (that swelled with their upcoming and shrank when started concentrating on ssds) even with slashing prices and trying to work on volume...they were done.
Too bad for them, although as others also have said, they never really gave me a strong sense of quality or reliability.
OCZ and (Abit/)DFI really helped make the hobby back when the scene was more or less being pioneered...or should I say Oskar Wu and Ryan Petersen. Now a days everything is locked down or boiled down to the lowest common denominator...One-click bioses, ram binned to all hell, laser-fused salvage chips, powertune and the like...while 'exploitation' has damn near hit a stand-still.
Days like this are sad because they truly do make some of us remember the good ol' days these companies helped facilitate...which were absurd amounts of fun (not to mention relatively inexpensive and overclocking actually MEANT something)...even if most are now a shadow of their former selves. Some of that is their fault, some of it is ours, some of it the big 3 in the space (if not the process tech)...and some of it just a by-product of the commoditization of computers (in whatever form) in general...which I guess would be selfish to call a bad thing.
At any rate...
R.I.P OCZ.