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Adaptec’s decision to sell its RAID business to PMC-Sierra leaves the storage vendor a shell of its former self, with a small ASIC business, 200 patents, $400 million, and little else to show after 26 years of business.
The sale is also the latest in a string of acquisitions that is consolidating the storage networking industry.
Adaptec, which was once a top provider of storage networking components, on Monday said it agreed to sell its data storage hardware and software business to PMC-Sierra for about $34 million in cash.
According to an SEC report Adaptec filed on Thursday, the sale includes assets related to the company’s ASICs, HBAs, RAID controllers, RAID software and RAID code, storage management software, and other solutions that span SCSI, SAS, and SATA interface technologies.
What will happen with the rest of the company’s assets is still an unknown. Adaptec said it will consider its options related to its Aristos ASIC technology business, remaining patents, and its real estate holdings, including possible sale of those assets.
Those asset sales may already be starting. Adaptec is shutting down its Lake Forest, Calif.-based office, according to the Orange County Business Journal. That office came with Adaptec’s 2008 acquisition of Aristos Logic.
Adaptec executives were not available to discuss the sale or the future of the company.
The sale of its storage business is the latest in a slow decline of Adaptec.
The most significant change in the last couple years was the sale in late 2008 of its Snap NAS division to Overland Storage. For that sale, Adaptec received a mere $3.6 million, a far cry from the $100 million Adaptec paid to acquire Snap in 2004.
More recently, Adaptec in December saw the departure of Subramanian ‘Sundi’ Sundaresh as president and CEO.
In January, the company reported revenue for its third fiscal quarter of $16.9 million, compared with $28.2 million in the same period one year ago. The company also reported a loss of $7.5 million, or 6 cents per share, compared to a profit of $0.1 million in the prior year.
The sale of Adaptec’s storage business is only the latest in a series of acquisitions that have riled the storage adapter business.
Next: The Storage Networking Business Consolidates
