“MILPITAS, Calif., October 26, 2011 – LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SandForce, Inc., the leading provider of flash storage processors for enterprise and client flash solutions and solid state drives (SSDs). Under the agreement, LSI will pay approximately $322 million in cash, net of cash assumed, and assume approximately $48 million of unvested stock options and restricted shares held by SandForce employees.”
It’s been a funny old year when it comes to SSD controller manufactures. Earlier this year OCZ Technology bought Indilinx, an acquisition that will begin to flourish in the next few days when OCZ launch their first SSD based on an Indilinx controller since they acquired Indilinx, in the shape of the OCZ Octane series of SSDs.
Now we hear that LSI has acquired SandForce. While it isn’t uncommon for large companies to swallow up some upstarts, this acquisition is bound to turn some heads. At the moment SandForce without doubt make the most sophisticated and most innovative SSD processor with their SF-2xxx range of controllers, and this will no doubt take LSI to a very nice place.
Rumours had been circulating over the last few weeks that SandForce had been talking to several large companies, including Intel and LSI. It appears LSI put forward the most attractive bid.
So how is all this likely to pan out for the SSD industry?
LSI is no doubt a major player in the storage industry already. Acquiring SandForce without doubt will make them even stronger. LSI at the moment mainly focus on the enterprise market, and the SandForce SSD processors were aimed at the enterprise market. The SF12xx and SF22xx series being the stripped down versions of the SSD controller, that we have all grown to love in the consumer SSD market place.
Let’s hope that LSI continues to supply a consumer based SSD processor once their acquisition of SandForce is complete.
