Optiarc
Optiarc is a brand of optical disc drives and solid-state drives. It is owned by a US-based Vinpower Digital, Inc.
Sony Optiarc DVD drive AD-7240S | |
| Product type | |
|---|---|
| Owner | Vinpower |
| Country | US |
| Introduced | April 3, 2006 |
| Discontinued | no |
| Previous owners | Sony, NEC |
| Website | www |
Initially Optiarc was established on April 3, 2006 as a joint venture between Sony (55% shares) and NEC (45% shares). The company, named Sony NEC Optiarc, focused on manufacturing optical disk drives primarily for the OEM desktop and notebook PC markets.
On September 11, 2008, it was announced that Sony would take over NEC's 45% share, making Optiarc a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony, to be called Sony Optiarc. This took effect on December 5, 2008
In March 2013, Sony closed its Optiarc optical disc drive division, laying off about 400 employees globally.
In 2017, an American company, Vinpower Digital, whose main business is manufacturing optical disc and other media duplicators for the commercial market, acquired the rights to the Optiarc brand and product line. The brand PioData is also owned by Vinpower Digital.