Flash biz Violin plays for $162m shower of notes - will rivals drown it out?
IPO at end of month, but upstart needs to be heard over the storage array din
Free ESG report : Seamless data management with Avere FXT
Flash array startup Violin Memory wants to raise $162m in a stock-market debut, according to paperwork filed for its IPO.
Earlier this month rival Pure Storage received $150m in a funding round, which may or may not be significant in Violin's pricing calculations.
Other recent big-bucks flash-array news this month has included:
- Cisco's purchase of Whiptail for $415m.
- Western Digital's purchase of Virident for $685m.
According to Investors.com Violin intends to sell 18 million shares priced between $8 and $10 apiece. That's 180 million at the high point, but the banks have to take their cut. At the $9 mid-point Violin would be capitalised at $877m.
As a reminder, Violin's mainstream storage competitors EMC and NetApp have their own acquired XtremIO and in-house built FlashRay products respectively, and HP has its own all-flash 3PAR 7450 array. There are also other flash array startups such as Nimbus Data, Skyera and SolidFire, and Fusion-io has a flash array capability with its NexGen acquisition.
Add all these to the mix and there's a whole orchestra of flash array players out there. Violin Memory will have to play a distinctive tune loud and strong to be heard. ®
