High performance storage vendor Data Direct Networks (DDN) has offered to buy struggling flash specialist Tintri for an undisclosed amount.

The deal was announced just a few hours after Tintri filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

If the agreement is reached, it would offer a lifeline for current Tintri customers – DDN pledged to continue supporting the company’s products. However, Tintri’s shareholders would not be likely to see any returns.

How the mighty have fallen

Tintri makes hybrid and all-flash storage arrays that are managed using a proprietary software platform. This platform is based on RESTful APIs and promises the convenience of public cloud services, no matter where the hardware is deployed.

According to Tintri, its products are used by Comcast, Chevron, NASA, Toyota, and United Healthcare, among others.

The company went public in June 2017 - however, while it managed to raise nearly $255 million in venture capital, it failed to woo the public markets and was burning through cash faster than it could grow its revenues.

Earlier this year, alarm bells started ringing when it emerged that Tintri was laying off people and closing offices in Europe. It simply ran out of money.

DDN wants to acquire “substantially all assets of Tintri” to enhance its own storage hardware business – which is also set to welcome Intel’s Lustre team.

“DDN is working with Tintri’s co-founders, team members, advisors and creditors to develop a winning plan designed to provide Tintri’s customers with continuity in support of their installed base as well as a winning roadmap for their long-term requirements,” said Alex Bouzari, CEO and co-founder of DDN.

“Tintri’s industry leading all-flash scale-out and automation enterprise storage solutions have been successfully deployed in more than a thousand companies, including 20 of the Fortune 100. They are essential tools to help organizations build agile development environments for cloud-native applications and run mission-critical enterprise applications better than ever before.”

It is worth mentioning again that the deal is non-binding, and provides no guarantee that a transaction will be completed – DDN could still be outbid in the bankruptcy court.

“Tintri looks forward to continuing to work with DDN on its proposal, which, if completed, would be expected to allow the company to continue to provide its industry-leading technology to the marketplace following the bankruptcy process and into the future,” said Kieran Harty, Tintri’s co-founder and CTO.

Tintri has been a frequent visitor to DCD events: here, you can see our video interview with system engineer Ian Cambell from 2016.