In an effort to bolster its flash capabilities and gain a bigger chunk of the enterprise market SanDisk acquires data centre storage developer Fusion-io for $1.1 billion in cash.
“Fusion-io will accelerate our efforts to enable the flash-transformed data center, helping companies better manage increasingly heavy data workloads at a lower total cost of ownership,” SanDisk says. “Customers will benefit from the addition of Fusion-io’s leading PCIe solutions to SanDisk’s vertically integrated business model.”
The acquisition follows the current storage industry trend toward vertical integration, as well as that of big vendors buying smaller specialist companies. SanDisk already stabs at enterprise flash, but it hopes the Fusion-io buy will broaden both its product and technology portfolios.
Following the deal Fusion-io will also start buying flash chips from SanDisk.
The acquisition should close on SanDisk's fiscal Q3 2014.
