OCZ in not-so-solid state after declaring bankruptcy

OCZ's Deneva 2 SSD
OCZ's Deneva 2 SSD

Troubled SSD maker OCZ has seen shares nosedive by 74.6 per cent after declaring itself bankrupt.

According to a statement posted on the company's website, OCZ's already rocky existence went from bad to worse after it breached the rules of a "loan and security" agreement between itself and creditor Hercules Technology Growth Capital. Hercules took control of OCZ's finances as a result and immediately made the company file for bankruptcy.

OCZ may not be in the running to be formatted just yet, however, as Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has reached out with an acquisition offer.

NAND, doh!

If accepted, Toshiba's offer is subject to various conditions that include not laying off OCZ's existing employees, not allowing the value of the business to nosedive and making sure that the best and highest offer is accepted by the bankruptcy court.

It's been something of a hard drive for OCZ in recent years. The California-based company abandoned the RAM market in 2011 to focus purely on solid state disks, a move that failed to reverse a sustained period of dwindling sales.

Moreover, it has struggled to secure a steady supply of NAND memory chips used in its drives in the face of heightened competition from smartphone makers.

OCZ, which hasn't posted an annual profit in five years, achieved revenue of $33.5 million for its most recent quarter, down from $88.6 million one year ago.

Kane Fulton
Kane has been fascinated by the endless possibilities of computers since first getting his hands on an Amiga 500+ back in 1991. These days he mostly lives in realm of VR, where he's working his way into the world Paddleball rankings in Rec Room.