SanDisk Buying SMART Storage for $307 Million

In one sense, at least, SanDisk is getting smarter.

On Tuesday, the flash memory giant announced it has signed an agreement to acquire private-equity-owned enterprise solid state drive developer SMART Storage Systems for $307 million, cash, plus certain unspecified "equity-based incentive awards" that could increase the deal's value.

SMART, currently owned by a parent company that is itself owned by private equity firm Silver Lake, generated $25 million in revenues in its most recent quarter, and, according to SanDisk, is growing rapidly. Thus, exclusive of the cost of the equity component of the price, today's purchase appears to value SMART at approximately 3 times annual revenues -- roughly on par with SanDisk's own 2.9 price-to-sales ratio.

In a statement, SanDisk warned that the purchase will be slightly dilutive to earnings in H2 2013, before becoming accretive in 2014. This is the company's fourth acquisition in the enterprise storage market. The deal is expected to close in August. Approximately 250 employees of SMART Storage Systems will join SanDisk when the deal is done.

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