Violin Memory in SECRET $2bn FLOAT PLAN, whisper snitches

Flash array start-up Violin Memory has filed for an initial public offering* worth up to $2bn, according to Bloomberg, which quoted two undisclosed sources.

The report says three banks are involved: JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, and Bank America Corp. Violin Memory is led by CEO Don Basile, formerly the CEO of Fusion-io, which went public after his departure in an IPO worth $1.5bn. Violin has so far raised an impressive total of $186m in funding. It makes a line of networked storage arrays using its own flash memory cards and controllers and offers much enhanced data access speed compared to disk drive arrays.

Recently the company agreed a deal with VMware to have vSphere running on processors inside its arrays, bringing compute and storage together for faster application execution. It has a software application strategy heading towards HANA - SAP is an investor - as well as Hadoop appliances. Recently, Violin inked a deal with Symantec to use its data management software.

The IPO date has not been revealed yet but, no doubt, Violin investors and stock option holders are hoping for a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. ®

*Under the JOBS Act, companies with annual revenues of less than $1bn are permitted to keep their public offering plans confidential with the US Securities and Exchange Commission until three weeks before the float.