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Fallen flash pioneer's CEO bets $600k it can rise again

Must be sick of watching flash newbies grab the big bucks

Struggling SSD supplier STEC has received a vote of confidence from its own CEO - Mark Moshayedi has just bought $593,000 worth of shares.

According to Forbes and Nasdaq community news president and CEO Mark Moshayedi bought 137,664 shares at an average price of $4.71. He obviously expects and hopes they will rise as STEC returns to health after a disastrously late entry into SAS/SATA solid state drives and PCIe format flash cards.

These problems were compounded when EMC over-bought STEC's Fibre Channel SSDs and stopped buying to draw down its inventory. They were compounded again when the SEC accused the then-president, chairman and CEO, Manouche Moshayed, of improper share dealing (Background here.) He promptly resigned to fight the charges, stepping aside in favour of his brother Mark. The share price collapsed and followed STEC's revenues down the toilet. A profits run turned into losses - around $80m so far this year.

STEC was once a flash star and has seen new entrants prosper as they come into the market that it pioneered - while it is left behind, struggling to catch up with its new SSDs and flash memory cards.

The new CEO seems confident STEC is back on a revenue growth path and is putting over half a million dollars of his own money where his mouth is. That's an impressive bet. ®

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