Long-time Mac accessory vendor OWC acquiring Akitio

OWC has announced that is is acquiring Akitio, with the merger creating a larger organization focused on the prosumer market.

Both companies target a similar audience, primarily made up of Mac users. By joining forces, they are able to work together to create new accessories and software for the mid to high end market. Akitio is known for its popular and well-designed Thunderbolt 3 accessories.

"This acquisition gives us the opportunity to strengthen our core prosumer lineup and market reach with photography, video and music pros with some really exceptional new offerings," said Larry O'Connor, OWC Founder & CEO. "Our product lines and brands are quite complementary, with Akitio bringing a strong reputation in the Windows space and segments like performance gaming, AR/VR, high- end creative strengths to our base. I see tremendous opportunities ahead for our team and our customers."

OWC makes its own storage and Thunderbolt accessories as well as high quality memory and upgrade kits for many Apple machines.

"The new combined organization brings unique market strengths, excellent geographic coverage, an outstanding engineering team, and exceptional design and product development capabilities," said Tommy Chen, CEO of Akitio. "OWC has developed an incredible reputation in the market for delivering products that are lightning fast, high-performance and reliable, and our entire team is proud to join OWC and take that reputation even higher."

After the acquisition, all Akitio warranties will remain intact. Akitio's team will remain in their California-based office as well as satellite locations around the world and OWC will still operate out of its headquarters in Illinois.

OWC made the announcement on Thursday morning, just days ahead of the largest electronics show of the year — CES — where they are set to debut their latest wares. AppleInsider will be hands-on during CES with all of OWC's new products.

10 Comments

emoeller 588 comments · 17 Years

About 5 years ago

I use products from from both of these companies every day. Congratulations on the merger.

livingroom 14 comments · 7 Years

yeah OWC stuff is WAY WAY overpriced. I do not look forward to Akitio products going up by hundreds of dollars just because the OWC name is slapped on it.

kmac1036 281 comments · 16 Years

livingroom said:

yeah OWC stuff is WAY WAY overpriced. I do not look forward to Akitio products going up by hundreds of dollars just because the OWC name is slapped on it.

actually, if you go shopping on the two sites, the TB3 equipment, like for like, is less than $60 apart, either way you go. Nothing against Akitio, OWC gear has been really easy for me to get ordered and shipped over the years & the regular sales on macsales.com not only makes it competitive priced, I've often gotten a better price from, say, B&H on the same or comparable gear (re:akitio) direct from OWC. So, that statement is clearly misguided, to say the least.

nht 4491 comments · 14 Years

kmac1036 said:

livingroom said:

yeah OWC stuff is WAY WAY overpriced. I do not look forward to Akitio products going up by hundreds of dollars just because the OWC name is slapped on it.

actually, if you go shopping on the two sites, the TB3 equipment, like for like, is less than $60 apart, either way you go. Nothing against Akitio, OWC gear has been really easy for me to get ordered and shipped over the years & the regular sales on macsales.com not only makes it competitive priced, I've often gotten a better price from, say, B&H on the same or comparable gear (re:akitio) direct from OWC. So, that statement is clearly misguided, to say the least.

$60 is a significant amount for a $300 item. Akitio provided good value. OWC, meh.