| OCZ Technology Changes Public Direction as OCZT Stock Wanes |
| Written by Olin Coles | ||
| Wednesday, 31 March 2010 | ||
OCZ Technology Changes Public Direction as OCZT Stock WanesCuts Business Model Down to System Memory, Power Supply Units, and Solid State Drive ProductsAnnounced on 24 March 2010, OCZ Technology raised $15.4-million with Institutional Investors through Private Transactions. Yet, despite this effort, the value of OTC:OCZT stock has steadily declined since first making itself available for public trades $6.25 per share on 10 February 2010. AT the close of market on 30 March 2010, OCZU closed down 6.52% on the day at $4.30 per share. All of this has happened while the relative markets have seen 45-day highs, leaving OCZ to make some drastic changes to their business model. First, OCZ cut out non-core product development, including coolers, keyboards, mice, peripheral gaming gear, computer systems, and all the other products not pertaining to memory, solid-state drives (SSDs) and power supply units. Considering the popularity of OCZ Solid State Drive products, this could prove beneficial to their financial future. Alex Mei, OCZ Technology Group's Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, had this to say of the matter: "We are focusing all our resources on SSD, PSU and memory and our [system integration] business really did not fit into the spectrum of things". That hasn't always been the case. OCZ brought the Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) to market in 2008, a product that allows gamers to control mouse input with their mind; an intellectual property the company later sold to BCInet. Very recently OCZ silently shut down their Hypersonic business unit (acquired in early 2008), and abandoned the high-end notebook and desktop PC market completely. OCZ's purchase of PC Power & Cooling in 2008 could be the next business unit to drop, but until then OCZ is putting their energy in SSDs: "Over the course of the last few years, we have met the demand for a better storage option head-on, by delivering high performance solid state disk drives to a wide array of customer's globally. This round of funding will enable OCZ to continue its growth in SSDs and accelerate the development of next-generation solutions," said Ryan Petersen, President and CEO of OCZ Technology Group, Inc. Enthusiasts familiar with the OCZ brand may recall the OCZ Vertex-2 Pro Enterprise storage solution, based on the SandForce SF1500 SSD Processor and announced at the 2010 CES. This project was silently terminated after hardware review websites reported product failures, yet OCZ sources indicate it was because of production costs. For many, this was an indication of financial stability for the company. Ryan Petersen also adds: "OCZ will continue to design, develop and implement SSD technology with its current base of over 300 customers while opening up new markets through targeting enterprise and OEM customers seeking to adopt flash media as primary storage". Indilinx-based SSD products made OCZ into the storage leader they are today, and the SandForce product line was next in line for succession. Missing Q1-2010 entirely, there's no indication of when SandForce SF-1200 SSD's will arrive to market. Benchmark Reviews has already published a review of the SandForce-based ADATA S599, and the Corsair Force F100 is coming soon. Only time will tell how well OCZ flourishes. About OCZ Technology Group, Inc.
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