NStor May Go Solo

NStor Technologies Inc. (Amex: NSO), the parent company of SAN supplier nStor Corp., has reached a split in the road and may be considering cutting its SAN division loose from the mothership.

"We are exploring it," says CEO and chairman H. Irwin Levy. "We have not made a decision... There are many things I can't discuss right now."

NStor Corp., headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif., is one of two wholly owned subsidiaries under the umbrella of nStor Technologies Inc. It makes Fibre Channel disk arrays and recently introduced a line of serial ATA (SATA) storage devices as well (see nStor Unveils SATA Series). The parent company's other division, Stonehouse Technologies Inc., headquartered in Dallas, provides software and outsourcing for enterprise telecom networks.

Two very different businesses, but nStor Technologies's latest earnings report shows that both are bringing in revenue, though storage business nStor Corp. accounts for the lion's share -- 60 percent of $3.5 million this last quarter (see nStor Reports Q4 and Full Year Results). In the previous quarter, the storage division accounted for nearly 72 percent of $3.9 million in sales (see NStor Q3 Storage Revs Up 73% ); and for the second quarter of 2003, nStor Corp. accounted for 57 percent of $2.8 million in sales.

Things could be better. For the full year 2003, nStor Technologies showed a loss of just under $6 million, or 4 cents per share, on revenues of $12.6 million. While that's certainly better than the company's 2002 loss of $8 million, or 6 cents per share, on $10.8 million, there's clearly room for improvement.What's more, nStor Corp.'s revenues have drooped a bit. While they rose nearly 73 percent in the third quarter 2003, they dipped 22 percent to $2.18 million in the latest quarter. Chairman Levy blames the SATA market: While he thinks it will be a "huge" market eventually, he says some customers are confused about how best to apply the technology, and they've stalled on purchasing gear.

Despite a slow ramp-up, a range of companies have taken an interest in SATA, including IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), LSI Logic Corp. (NYSE: LSI), and Maxtor Corp. (NYSE: MXO). (See SATA Suppliers Ready for Onslaught.)

Component makers are biting, too. Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (Nasdaq: AMCC) is developing its own angle and recently bought SATA controller maker 3ware Inc. (see AMCC Buys More Storage).

Would anyone be interested in buying nStor Corp. for similar reasons? Would the company be better off splitting from its parent and taking its own road ahead? There are no answers yet, and the slow takeoff of SATA and the increasingly competitive market make the outcome a guessing game. For now, nStor appears to be exploring its options.

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch0