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OCZ Technology Group files for bankruptcy

by Mark Tyson on 28 November 2013, 09:48

Tags: OCZ (NASDAQ:OCZ), Toshiba (TYO:6502)

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The OCZ Technology Group announced yesterday that it is planning bankruptcy proceedings; it has suffered from financial problems for months. Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc has taken control of OCZ’s bank accounts, as part of the bankruptcy terms agreed with the courts. Interestingly OCZ has received an offer from Toshiba Corp to purchase its assets but this deal can only go ahead if Toshiba follow various conditions.

The OCZ agreement with Toshiba is subject to: 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 statement was made in OCZ’s press release. There will be obvious concerns about warranties but hopefully they would continue to be honoured after a takeover complying with the above terms. OCZ has subsequently told us that the "warranty will not be lost and honoured to all customers. We encourage anyone to contact our customer support if they require any help."

OCZ has been under strong pressure mainly due to the lack of competitive NAND flash memory chip supply. It also had problems regarding accounting improprieties in 2012, which meant it would need to restate its earnings going back years. We first heard rumours about OCZ being a takeover target for Toshiba in mid October. An OCZ acquisition would allow Toshiba to be a fully vertically integrated SSD producer.

OCZ stock was at 63 cents before the bankruptcy news but by the end of trading OCZ shares had crashed to 16 cents. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with OCZ stock on retailers’ shelves right now and also if the Toshiba deal will go ahead. We will be watching developments closely.



HEXUS Forums :: 26 Comments

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Lets hope the Toshiba deal fails and this sh!tty company finally goes down the drain after messing the customers left and right with crappy quality RAM, self-destructing SSDs and FSP PSU rebrands for YEARS while refusing RMAs saying that it's the customers fault.. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.


Admin Edit - Watch your language please, including with asterisks.
Wow that's a bit of a surprise - normally don't these kind of companies file for Chapter 11, rather than this which looks like a full blown Chapter 7 deal.

I guess the other reason for the lack of success is that other companies have upped their game and OCZ failed to. When I was buying my first SSD OCZ Vertex was the “no-brainer” choice, but these days everyone I know has moved to Samsung or Crucial - me included having just replaced my Vertex 2E boot drive with a Samsung EVO.

Same with the memory - other people seem to be doing it better these days.

I know a couple of folks who were comfortable with their (rebadged) PSU's - but I always went with a “proper” vendor like Enermax, Antec and latterly Corsair.

Maybe if Toshiba are willing to take them over then they'll get rid of the “seat polishers” and turn the OCZ brand into an “enthusiasts” badging of their stuff, but backed with better customer support and quality control than has been the case with OCZ previously.
It sounds like you had a bad time with them Bambooz. It's been the complete opposite for me my Vertex 120 SSD (original) which I bought when it first came out is still running in my mothers PC and could still beat my current SSD in some tests. My old reaper DDR2 dimms which are older than the SSD by at least 18 months are still going in a charity run adult computer training centre in manchester.

My only problem with them was the awkward way the SSD's firmware needed updated.
Bambooz
Lets hope the Toshiba deal fails and this sh!tty company finally goes down the drain after messing the customers left and right with crappy quality RAM

Back in the day, their RAM was both good quality & value. I've got 4Gb of their DDR2 RAM in my second PC which has been running happily for the past 4 years or so. I think it's only since they diversified into SSDs that their quality & subsequent reliability took a nose dive…
Its a shame because they just got a deal with Panasonic
http://www.storagereview.com/panasonic_to_license_ocz_barefoot_3_controller_and_ssd_design_exclusive

I'm very happy with my Vectors. Consistently got good reviews as far as I read. I liked the fact they had their own controller. All 4 of mine have been reliable and none have failed yet.