I remember when SimpleTech was called Simple Technology and had a child-like logo.

Then in May 2001, it went more corporate and squished the two words together.

Now, it has sold off its consumer division and dropped any hint of the English language. It’s now going with just plain STEC, to represent its concentration on memory and storage for industrial users.

I haven’t seen a new logo, so it looks like the news that it sold off its consumer products division, changed its name and accepted the resignation of one of its cofounders was rather sudden.

But SimpleTech, the brand name, isn’t going away. On Monday, Fabrik Inc. said it is the company that bought STEC’s consumer division for $43 million.

The consumer division makes external hard drives, USB drives, memory cards and memory upgrades and wasn’t very profitable. But Fabrik, an online storage company in San Mateo, feels the hardware will complement its software and services quite nicely.

“One of the nicest things about the acquisition, there is zero redundancy,” Mike Cordano, Fabrik’s president and chief executive. “It’s really a devices business. There will be no business restructuring. It’s very synergistic.”

Good news for all of STEC’s 140 employees …

who worked in the consumer business, Fabrik wants all of you. And it’s in the process of signing a 5-year lease for a nearby building in Santa Ana. Until they can move in, the SimpleTech folks will cohabitate in STEC’s building. They join Fabrik’s 20 employees in San Mateo who are focused on software and development.

Oh yes, and as part of the sale, Fabrik now owns the SimpleTech brand name.

STEC said the sale includes $13.6 million in assumed liabilities, which should be neutral to its earnings. It sold off the consumer business because of the rapid decline in the price of Flash memory components. STEC will concentrate on its more profitable industrial unit, which achieved gross profit margin of 35 percent in the third quarter of 2006 and 64 percent revenue growth from the prior year.

The head of that division, president and co-founder Mike Moshayedi, resigned from the company and the board on Friday. Vahid Manian, a senior vice president of global manufacturing operations for Broadcom Corp., replaced Moshayedi on the board.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.