OCZ drops 150 product lines, sacks staff

November 1, 2012 | 10:20

Tags: #finance #job-losses #ralph-schmitt #solid-state-storage #ssd

Companies: #ocz #ocz-technologies

OCZ's financial worries continue to mount, with the company announcing that it is to reduce its product offerings and shave jobs in order to keep its head above water.

The first of the company's activities to improve its bottom line involves issuing end-of-line (EOL) notices for around 150 of its multifarious product lines. It's a serious undertaking, and will see the company's budget-friendly product offerings - where margins are the tightest - slashed by around 80 per cent.

As a result, the company is to focus on the more lucrative enterprise and high-grade consumer products. In the short term, that could mean bargains for consumers: OCZ's existing inventory is to be, in the company's own words, monetised - which means end-of-line products are going to be sold off dirt-cheap. Once existing inventory is depleted, however, it means one less company competing in the budget end of the market - never a good thing for those who like to see low prices and innovation.

The job losses account for around 28 per cent of the company's global workforce, a serious loss, with nearly a third of all employees at OCZ's Taiwanese production facility facing the chop. Additional measures to reduce expenditure and improve revenue are also being discussed, although OCZ has yet to share details with investors or press.

'We are undergoing a transition phase in the company's evolution in which we are refocusing our efforts on products and strategies that will benefit both OCZ and our stakeholders over the long term,' claimed Ralph Schmitt, OCZ's newly-appointed chief executive officer, in a statement to press. 'We have already taken aggressive steps to address some short-term tactical challenges and have begun streamlining the organization to help ensure that OCZ will be in the best position moving forward to address the fast growing consumer and enterprise SSD markets.'
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