OCZ to Stop Memory Biz, Focusing on SSDs

Monday OCZ Technology Group reported its fiscal 2011 third quarter results, revealing that the company plans to bail out of the DRAM sector and phase out all remaining DRAM products by the end of its fiscal year of February 28, 2011.

"In August 2010, the Company announced a strategic optimization of its memory products whereby it discontinued certain unprofitable commodity memory module products with the intent to continue only with certain high-performance memory products. However, since that time, there has been well-chronicled, continued weakness in the global DRAM markets," the company said in the report.

After considering the capital needs of the company's growing SSD products against the weaknesses of the DRAM market, the board determined that it would be in the best interest of the stockholders to accelerate its plans to discontinue the remaining DRAM module products by the end of February as previously mentioned.

"Revenue generated from our Solid State Drive products for the third fiscal quarter more than doubled on a sequential basis," said Ryan Petersen, Chief Executive Officer of OCZ Technology. "SSD revenue accounted for 78-percent of our revenue and just by itself exceeds our historical quarterly revenue totals across all categories, thus reinforcing our decision to discontinue our remaining DRAM products."

An attached chart revealed the company's loss in the DRAM sector, showing a net revenue of $22.04 million in fiscal Q3 2009 that eroded over time down to $6.26 million in fiscal Q3 2011. Its SSD portion saw the exact opposite, showing a jump from $2.16 million in fiscal Q3 2009 to a hefty $41.47 million in fiscal Q3 2011.

OCZ said that its DRAM products are now expected to have minimal, if any, sales in the next fiscal year and beyond.

  • LuckyDucky7
    "OCZ said that its DRAM products are now expected to have minimal, if any, sales in the next fiscal year and beyond."

    Because when the quality of your products goes down relative to the price of competing products, well, that's what happens.

    Too bad- OCZ was one of the top-tier manufacturers of RAM, but not anymore.

    Whether or not they'll pull a BFG on lifetime warranties on these DRAMs remains to be seen, I guess.
    Reply
  • silky salamandr
    A while ago when I was on my first build, I made the mistake of buying some OCZ ram. It didnt work and the rma didnt work. I guess their right for leaving becuase their ram wasthe worst that it gets.
    Reply
  • Maziar
    Too bad
    I liked their Reaper/Flex models.
    Reply
  • Mathos
    Never have used OCZ ram, Usually stuck with Mushkin or Crucial on the high end or G.Skill/Kingston on the mid range. If I did a budget build, I usually went Adata. Still using my DDR2 1066 Mushkin Blackline Ram that I got a couple years ago, with my current x6 1090T build and it chugs along good and even takes OCing well at stock volts.

    But, at least they still make decent PSU rebadges and good SSD's.
    Reply
  • takeapieandrun
    Sad... they were great RAM modules for the price (atleast mine were, 6GB 1600mhz for $95)
    Reply
  • garlik_bread
    As LuckyDucky has said, I wonder how this will affect the OCZ lifetime warranties.

    I had to warranty some OCZ Platinum DDR2 a while back and was actually quite impressed with the service.
    Reply
  • apache_lives
    never bought any of there products, never trusted any of there products - no change here

    that and the only brand of SSD i will buy is Intel
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    LuckyDucky7Too bad- OCZ was one of the top-tier manufacturers of RAM, but not anymore.
    I think this is good news really. OCZ modules have been plagued by compatibility issues and failure to perform to spec since 2004 or so.
    Reply
  • blackjellognomes
    neiroatopelccI think this is good news really. OCZ modules have been plagued by compatibility issues and failure to perform to spec since 2004 or so.They were specific models. Granted, there were quite a few, but they were easy to pick out via ratings/reviews on Newegg.
    Reply
  • San Pedro
    Hmm, I actually have to send in a set of Platinum Revision 2 DDR2 modules for RMA. I had a stick just go bad after 3 years. . .
    Reply