It has been a rough year for OCZ as they tried to overcome the problems that they inherited from once CEO Ryan Petersen. The news first broke in February when Wells Fargo announced that they would have OCZ delisted from the stock exchange as they had not submitted an acceptable profit statement since Q1 of 2012. That would have had a drastic effect on the ability of OCZ to do business and would have triggered a shareholder revolt. The new company head, Ralph Schmitt, managed to stave off the Feb 28th deadline with the help of Crowe Horwath LLP's auditors and received an extension on the SEC deadline. As long as OCZ could produce an accurate accounting of 2012 and Q1 of 2013 by April 8th they would not be delisted. Unfortunately the corrected bookkeeping revealed a serious problem with OCZ's sales model. The higher their raw revenues climbed during 2013 the more their net loss increased, with sales incentives, poor chip supplies and other costs contributed to a seemingly unsustainable business model.
Today the sad announcement of the coming demise of OCZ became official, at 9AM EST trading of OCZ stock was suspended as they announced their impending bankruptcy. The trading resumed just a short time ago, at 2:30PM and as you can see the news is bleak for shareholders.
The stock price declined by 67% since the beginning of the year until this announcement and is currently plummeting even more. According to Barrons and other sources, Toshiba has made an offer to purchase OCZ's assets, the "“material terms have been agreed to,” though there are a number of conditions that have to be satisfied, such as retention of employees." Until this deal is finalized we will not know the fate of OCZ and their product lines or warranty support and it could be quite some time before the specifics are agreed upon and announced to consumers. It is a sad day for enthusiasts who have enjoyed the great performance and low prices that OCZ's SSDs lines offered.
UPDATE : “With the recent news OCZ wants to reassure all our valued customers that the Company is honoring all product warranties. If any customers require support they are encouraged to contact our customer support and forum support teams who will be more than happy to assist.”
This is very sad news to hear
This is very sad news to hear I hope all those people who worked for OCZ can find new jobs. Its always a bummer to lose a cool tech company.
even in bankruptcy, they are
even in bankruptcy, they are not gone. they can still reorganize and even may come outta it in better shape.
Via Ars
Via Ars (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/once-great-ssd-manufacturer-ocz-filing-for-bankruptcy/)
Per the loan agreement’s terms, OCZ has begun the bankruptcy process—with the goal of dissolution, not restructuring.
Sounds like they aren’t coming back.
Delisted but not dead, even
Delisted but not dead, even in bankruptcy. Maybe they can find a buyer, or be taken private! Many options before the Toshiba buzzards begin to feast!
Yeah lets hope they do, sorry
Yeah lets hope they do, sorry to here that they are in trouble.
The story I read said Toshiba
The story I read said Toshiba was ready to take essentially all of OCZ including IP, facilities and employees. Hope so and that the court allows it.
Sad news indeed. I have a
Sad news indeed. I have a stack of their SSDs, the Vector in particular has been excellent.
Let’s hope that Toshiba can resurrect their product lines.
And yet another pc enthusiast
And yet another pc enthusiast company bites the dust to join the ranks of DFI, Abit, Epox, Aopen, BFG Tech, Soyo, and the list grows and grows. Sad as even though I didn’t like their memory products, I had great luck with OCZ psu’s and SSD’s.
Shame really, much of the
Shame really, much of the consumer market penetration of SSDs can be attributed to their aggressive pricing model but alas it appears not to have been sustainable. (Or at least perhaps flash manufacturers deciding to release their own drives ensured it was not.)
very sad, and the push in the
very sad, and the push in the article only reflects the toshiba’s interest- which will not be in power supplies.
i have always been happy with my pc power & cooling units.
OCZ is not just a single company but several- Toshiba can buy it up – keep the SSD parts and sell of the rest – or buy it up and move the full manufacture to another country.
such a loss