OCZ has been going through a rough patch lately. Founder and CEO Ryan Petersen left the company in September, and one month later, OCZ warned of a “significant” quarterly loss. That loss was blamed on “customer incentive programs”—overly aggressive pricing, in other words. As of today, the company’s results still haven’t been posted.
However, the firm may be on the path to recovery. Newly minted CEO Ralph Schmitt told Reuters earlier this week, “I’ll say that we’ve got the train back on the track.” Schmitt explained that OCZ has gotten supply issues under control by broadening its supplier base. “That was part of the issue before,” he said. “We were overly reliant on one supplier.” The company is also taking other steps to avoid financial ruin.
OCZ has entered “talks for additional capital,” plans to cut staff by 28%, and intends to focus on higher-margin products going forward. “I cannot think we can compete on price,” explains Schmitt. “The flash guys – the Microns, the Intels, the Samsungs really are the guys that will take that market.” Reuters probed to see if Schmitt was exploring a possible sale of the firm, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. “That’s not the direction we are heading towards,” noted the CEO. Schmitt believes OCZ can do better with its existing assets.
We’ll have to wait and see OCZ’s financials to know the true extent of the damage, but Schmitt’s statement are encouraging, at least. It would certainly be a shame if OCZ were to drop out of the market altogether. The company has proved it can produce some excellent solid-state drives—like the freshly introduced Vector, which is one of the fastest drives we’ve tested to date.