back to article Violin Memory axes 100 staff, mulls fate of PCIe flash card biz

Violin Memory is laying off staff and hopes to sell its PCIe flash card business as new-broom CEO Kevin DeNuccio tries to get the storage biz profitable. DeNuccio is dismantling the excesses of the Basile era of Violin Memory and retrenching and refocussing the business on its core market: all-flash arrays. The strategic …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That's One Way To Mask A Train Wreck

    Talk about PR job.

    Given the number of friends and acquaintances I know who have left Violin after the drop in stock price, they have to hire to get to the 383 employee number.

    And do you really think they would sell off the card business if Toshiba was really moving forward buying the cards in bulk. Remember this is what the street was told was going to get Violin's margins up to a more attractive systems company level.

    I think the $3mm signing bonus for the new CEO says it all.

  2. DeepStorage

    Now that Toshiba owns OCZ they don't need Violin's PCIe SSDs.

    Even if OCZ's current Z-Drive cards aren't up to Toshiba's standards for enterprise PCIe SSDs a new model from OCZ, fully in house, will be at least as good for Toshiba as buying from Violin who they own just part of.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Light Is An On-Coming Train

    Lots of friends already laid off or left prior to the current lay-off. Routine hiring of people and then laying them off after a less than a year - staying below 500 employees. In the months preceding this "restructuring" announcement .. a number of mid-level executives were laid off or left. If we are to guess - the number will be well under 383 as the previous comment stated. They are also right about the cards. Toshiba was supposed to be buying in large quantities. Never did, did they ? Velocity cards appear to have turned out be a dud for Violin. Was it more about ego ? You don't see independent public benchmarks of the Violin cards like you do for Intel, Fusion IO, Micron, Virident... The real calamity is approaching - and that is the earnings report in early March that many people expected on Feb 21st. What does a problem IPO, losses, lay-offs and re-evaluations of products suggest. A company deeply mis-managed and floundering. All of this is appears as positioning - executive firings, lay-offs, restructuring and re-evaluations - for the earnings report. How many new companies did they attract to their arrays ? What revenue did sales bring in ? How big a loss did they have ? How bad could it be ? We will see. Given all this positioning some of us can guess the answer.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The Light Is An On-Coming Train

      Why would a company announce a restructuring before the earnings? Earnings are great time for a kitchen sink announcement. Unless they are actually doing well and will exceed expectations.

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