Ciprico Talking With Buyers

Minneapolis-based data storage solutions provider Ciprico, plagued by weak sales, could soon have a new owner.

“While there are no definitive agreements we have a high level of interest from several parties who are actively engaged in evaluating possible strategic transactions with the company,” President and CEO Steve Merrifield said in a statement.

The company reduced staff in March and has enlisted an investment banking firm to explore its options.

Ciprico also released its Virtual Storage Technology (Ciprico VST) Pro software packages that enable its RAIDCore product to run on Intel, AMD/ATI and Broadcom chipset solutions without the need for a hardware controller. RAIDCore is now capable of running on over 80 percent of the servers and workstations being shipped today, the company said.

“Ciprico is facing some challenging times as we work through transitioning the Company to newer products and technologies. We believe our investments in the RAIDCore technology will make it a pervasive data protection software solution in the market,” said Merrifield. “A number of the most significant OEMs in the industry continue their evaluation of RAIDCore. We are confident in the future of software-based RAID and believe it offers customers unparalleled levels of flexibility, performance and price. In addition, RAIDCore has been integrated into our DiMeda, MediaVault and Talon product lines and initial customer feedback is very positive as it relates to the performance and quality of these products.”

The company also said it would be late in the filing of SEC Form 10-QSB—its detailed financial report—for the quarter ended March 31, 2008. The headcount reduction announced in March impacted the finance and accounting team who are responsible for preparing the filing but also have been assisting with the company’s strategic alternative analyses, the company said.