Adaptec Buys Aristos Logic

Controller specialist Adaptec has clinched a deal to acquire RAID chip vendor Aristos Logic for $41 million in an attempt to breathe new life into its OEM business.

[Aristos Logic has] RAID ASICs in a market segment that we don’t participate in today,” Suresh Panikar, Adaptec’s director of worldwide marketing, told Byte & Switch. “It gives us brand new opportunities on the OEM side as well as in-house ASIC capabilities.”

At the moment, Adaptec sells 3-Gbit/s SAS controllers based on Intel technology to the server market, whereas Aristos Logic offers its own 6-Gbit/s silicon to the workstation and storage target market.

Adaptec, which competes with LSI and AMCC, is now looking to expand its controller lineup to SATA and SAS-based storage arrays, according to Panikar.

Aristos Logic has already clinched “several” OEM deals for its 3400 and 3450 controller ASICs, he says, which Adaptec is keen to exploit.“They have several top-tier and second-tier OEMs – it’s a combination of systems and storage vendors,” he adds, but he refused to reveal their identities. “We’re gaining the ASIC capability that we did not have for the last couple of years and gaining entry back into the Tier 1 and Tier 2 OEMs.”

Adaptec has seen its controller OEM business decrease significantly in recent years; hence the decision to acquire ASIC capability.

“This is so that we can build future products that will be more suitable to OEMs,” explains Panikar. “Long-term, we would look to do a 6-Gig implementation within our product line.”

The exec also confirmed that Aristos Logic’s 75 employees, including CEO Anil Gupta and the rest of his management team, will be joining the Milpitas, Calif.-based vendor. The startups’s headquarters in Foothill Ranch, Calif., will also remain open, according to exec.

”Aristos Logic will be under the Adaptec name, but their internal group will be called 'storage technology products,'” says Panikar. “They will continue to provide us with ASICs and RAID controller software.”This is not the first M&A activity that Adaptec has been involved in this summer. Two months ago, for example, Overland bought Adaptec’s SnapServer business to bolster its presence in the SMB NAS market.

Adaptec, which has struggled with recent execution issues, is focused on strengthening its Serial RAID controller business and its iSCSI assets, hence the decision to purchase Aristos Logic.

The Aristos Logic deal is expected to close “very soon”, according to Panikar, who added that Adaptec will be releasing more information on the acquisition in a form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Additional information will also be offered in Adaptec’s second quarter conference call in October.

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