The following is excerpted from an Objective Analysis Alert e-mailed to our clients on 2 July, 2013:
SanDisk Corporation announced on 2 July 2013 an agreement to acquire SMART Storage Systems, the SSD arm of SMART Modular Technologies, for $307 million in cash and equity. The transaction is expected to close in August, 2013.
SMART has strong SSD technology that allows the company to ship MLC-based SSDs with endurance specifications superior to those of some SLC SSDs. The SSD maker had shipments of about $25M in its most recent quarter.
The SMART acquisition will be the fourth such transaction in SanDisk’s efforts to become a leader in the enterprise SSD Market. Prior to this acquisition SanDisk acquired:
- Pliant Technology, a maker of SAS SSDs
- FlashSoft, a caching software company
- Schooner Information Technology, a developer of flash-optimized database and data store solutions.
With SMART, SanDisk gains established customers and a very strong SAS interface and NAND management technology which should complement SanDisk’s existing technology portfolio.
SanDisk is using its strong cash position to gain access in the highest growth market in flash today. SMART is a very positive addition to the SanDisk enterprise offering. We expect to see strong synergies emerge through this acquisition.
Objective Analysis has published a report: The Enterprise SSD: Technologies and Markets, which outlines the enterprise SSD market and profiles its players, forecasting unit shipments and revenues over the following five years. The report can be purchased for immediate download from the Objective Analysis website.
