SanDisk Buys Maker of SSDs

While HDD makers are buying each other off, it looks like operations of this sort are happening on the SSD market as well, with SanDisk now announcing that it has stuck a deal with Pliant Technology.

SanDisk is already known as a worldwide supplier of NAND Flash storage solutions, but it looks like it wants a more active role on the solid state drive segment.

In order to achieve that importance, the outfit has entered a deal with Pliant Technologies, whom it will completely buy off once closing conditions are agreed upon.

In exchange for the entirety of the latter's assets, SanDisk will pay the sum of $327 million in cash, as well as provide equity-based incentives.

"The Enterprise SSD market is poised for considerable growth, with revenue projected to reach $4.2 billion in 2015, up from $994 million in 2010," according to Joseph Unsworth, research director at Gartner.

"This trajectory is fueled by the expanding use of MLC NAND technology, which will require extensive flash management expertise to ensure successful adoption in enterprise applications."

At present, Pliant makes things like enterprise SAS SSDs and PCI Express-based models for HPC (high-performance computing) installations.

MLC (multi-level cell) memory is most prominently featured among its products and is affordable enough to be widely adopted, provided SanDisk can leverage its new resources properly.

"Flash memory is making significant inroads into the enterprise by dramatically increasing application performance and reducing power consumption," said Sanjay Mehrotra, SanDisk president and chief executive officer.

"We believe that the combination of Pliant's innovative technology and enterprise-level system expertise with SanDisk's high-quality, large-scale MLC memory production is a winning value proposition for customers. Our advanced flash technology roadmap and flash management capability will complement Pliant's strengths and allow us to lead the way in reliability and performance in the Enterprise SSD market."