OCZ Technology Group, one of the pioneers in the growing SSD industry, on Wednesday said it has a new president and CEO, and that its second quarter 2013 revenue will be much lower than earlier guidelines.

Ralph Schmitt, who has been on OCZ's board of directors since April of 2011, is as of Wednesday the San Jose, Calif.-based storage company's new president and CEO.

Schmitt until Tuesday was president and CEO of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based PCIe technology developer PLX Technology, which is currently in the process of being acquired by San Jose, Calif.-based semiconductor company Integrated Device Technology (IDT).

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Schmitt is still on the PLX board of directors, and he is also on the board of the Global Semiconductor Alliance.

For part of the staff at OCZ, Schmitt's taking of the reigns will mean a reunion. OCZ has acquired some PLX assets in the past, including that company's U.K. design team.

Schmitt replaces Ryan Peterson who in September resigned as OCZ president and CEO.

OCZ also reported Wednesday that its second quarter 2013 revenue will be substantially lower than the $110 million to $120 million it had expected. The new revenue estimate was due mainly to the impact of consumer incentive programs, the company said.

OCZ reported second quarter 2012 revenue of $78.5 million.

Aaron Rakers, an analyst with Baltimore-based Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, wrote in a research report about OCZ that the company appears to have not had access to the financial impact of the customer incentive programs at the time it provided its earlier guidance.

Rakers also said that OCZ management, in a Wednesday conference call, said that SSD component availability was an issue.

"OCZ noted that there were some NAND Flash availability issues, but also stated that this reflected OCZ’s own execution/forecasting weaknesses during the August quarter," Rakers wrote.

PUBLISHED OCT. 10, 2012