The Final Nail In Violin’s Coffin Gets Bent, Goes In Crooked

We have been covering Violin Memory for years now at StorageReview. While we reported on several of their releases and even reviewed their WFA-64 Windows Flash Array, our recent reporting has leaned more toward their financial woes. Last month Violin threw in the towel and filed for Chapter 11. It looks as though the Violin saga is ended this month as the auction of its assets has begun, though buyers have yet to show up.

We have been covering Violin Memory for years now at StorageReview. While we reported on several of their releases and even reviewed their WFA-64 Windows Flash Array, our recent reporting has leaned more toward their financial woes. Last month Violin threw in the towel and filed for Chapter 11. It looks as though the Violin saga is ended this month as the auction of its assets has begun, though buyers have yet to show up.

As we reported last month, Violin’s rocky financial road was coming to an end. Violin started as one of the pioneers in the all-flash array market. As with all markets, competition soon started flooding in. Once the competition was able to produce all-flash arrays with similar performance but at a significantly lower cost, it was only a matter of time for Violin to adapt or perish. Violin continued to innovate becoming VMware ready and releasing new products and services, but in the end they were not able to compete. Their stock took a dramatic fall and they reduced their workforce in an effort to stay buoyant. Alas, the effort wasn’t enough and the stock was delisted shortly before the company filed for bankruptcy.

Violin has continued to support its existing customers as it sought to auction off its core business. On January 6, 2017 a bankruptcy judge, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein, granted Violin the auction plan with a bidding deadline of January 18 and a scheduled auction date of January 23 if necessary. Currently there are no reported bids, though there is a sale hearing set for January 30. Violin is auctioning off its core business, which includes its customer list, service revenue, over 100 patents (with nearly a 100 pending), along with its remaining hardware and software.

It is an interesting time in the tech industry. As we saw yesterday with vSAN, market dynamics can be extremely volatile. In vSAN’s case, the market itself is changing more to reflect its business model and saw a jump in adoption that eclipsed its two closest competitors. However, as turbulent as this market seems, an upstate can disrupt it quickly and take the throne from a sure bet in a matter of months. 

Violin Memory Investors page

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