Rumours are abound that Seagate are set to acquire OCZ Technology.
Seagate have long said that they will enter the SSD market when the time is right, and it would seem that now is that time. Seagate are a giant in the HDD market, and they have dabbled, although somewhat half heartedly in the SSD market. OCZ on the other hand are a proven force in the SSD market, they have the expertise to innovate, build, and get those SSDs into consumers hands, and all at a very attractive price.
The question must be, why would Seagate want to acquire OCZ Technology?
SSDs take a long time to develop, if you have to start from scratch. OCZ Technology already have some of the fastest SSDs in the market in the shape of the Vertex 3 and Vertex 4 series of SSDs. Not only that, OCZ have an impressive arsenal of weapons now and for the immediate future. OCZ already have the Everest 2 platform, which has already made big inroads in the consumer market, and the Everest 2 platform will soon enter the enterprise market. Of course this is now, but what is probably much more interesting to Seagate is what is coming.
OCZ have already built products on the enormously powerful Kilimanjaro platform, and later this year OCZ are set to debut their new, first fully in-house designed, Indilinx BareFoot 3 SSD processor. BareFoot 3 will be based on a brand new 400MHz 32bit Aragon core. The Aragon core will use a RISC architecture specifically designed for SSDs, promising unheard of performance.
If the acquisition does go ahead, then it's thought that OCZ will still remain as the innovator and builder of SSDs, but with the backing and quality assurance from Seagate, a formidable combination.
The stock market certainly seems convinced that the acquisition will go ahead, possibly as early as next week. With OCZ Technology already seeing gains of 28.7% on their share value.
