LSI Corporation (NYSE:LSI) has announced an agreement to purchase SandForce. Under the agreement LSI will pay roughly $322 million in cash and assume $48 million of unvested stock options and restricted shares held by SandForce employees. The acquisition obviously gives LSI an immediate competitive boost, especially with their WarpDrive PCIe SSDs (WarpDrive 2 Preview), which leverage SandForce processors.
LSI Corporation (NYSE:LSI) has announced an agreement to purchase SandForce. Under the agreement LSI will pay roughly $322 million in cash and assume $48 million of unvested stock options and restricted shares held by SandForce employees. The acquisition obviously gives LSI an immediate competitive boost, especially with their WarpDrive PCIe SSDs (WarpDrive 2 Preview), which leverage SandForce processors.
The transaction is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2012 pending regulatory approvals. Upon closing, the SandForce team will become part of LSI’s newly formed Flash Components Division, with SandForce CEO Michael Raam as general manager.
The immediate question is what happens to all of the SandForce licensees who depend on SandForce processors and technology for their SSD businesses. It doesn’t sound like there will be any material changes, at least for the foreseeable future. LSI indicated they plan on operating the SandForce business in the same manner it’s run today.
OCZ, who leverages SandForce processors in a variety of their SSD products, released a statement on the deal; "On behalf of OCZ, I would like to congratulate SandForce on its combination with LSI, a current partner of OCZ’s," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "SandForce has been a great partner, and we expect the added resources of LSI will only benefit SandForce’s customers. Moreover, because OCZ and SandForce previously contemplated this scenario, we expect that this combination will have no material impact to our existing product lines or business," concluded Mr. Petersen.
