SanDisk to Acquire Smart Storage Systems, plus Invest in Cloud Storage Systems

SanDisk to Acquire Smart Storage Systems, plus Invest in Cloud Storage Systems

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Milpitas, CA—SanDisk will acquire Smart Storage Systems, a developer of enterprise solid state drives based on the SATA and SAS storage protocols. SanDisk will pay $307 million in cash and certain equity-based incentive awards to acquire the company, which is part of the Smart Worldwide Holdings portfolio.

The transaction, which was approved by the boards of directors of both companies, is subject to customary closing conditions and it is expected to close in August 2013. Approximately 250 employees of Smart Storage Systems will join SanDisk at the close of the transaction.

“SanDisk is excited to build upon its leadership position with its fourth acquisition in the enterprise storage market,” said Sumit Sadana, executive vice president and chief strategy officer of SanDisk. “This acquisition enables SanDisk to address a $1.6 billion market opportunity in enterprise SATA products, and complements our strong enterprise SAS product portfolio. With this combination, SanDisk will have products qualified with six of the top seven storage OEMs worldwide.”

In related  news, SanDisk announced its venture arm, SanDisk Ventures, invested in Panzura, a provider of flash-based network attached storage (NAS) solutions for enterprise companies. Panzura’s scalable offering uses flash memory to store data off-premise in the cloud, reducing customer system, support, administration, power and cooling costs.

SanDisk participated in Panzura’s recent Series D funding round and joins Meritech Capital, Matrix Partners, Khosla Ventures, Opus Capital and Chevron Technology Ventures as Panzura backers.

“Panzura welcomes the opportunity to build a closer relationship with SanDisk,” said Randy Chou, CEO and cofounder of Panzura. “SanDisk’s technical expertise and market presence will be invaluable as we continue our focus on growing our business in the cloud storage controller market.” sandisk.com

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