An update and correction on this story can be found here.
LiteOn is fairly popular among the enthusiast crowd, often delivering optical drives at a low cost that still have all the features of the bigger brand names. Unfortunately, they will be halting optical drive shipments under their own name, instead switching to an OEM vendor only. While many companies rebrand LiteOn drives, the sales for a straight LiteOn ODD aren't high enough for the company to continue:
Three main reasons for this were the following: the ongoing integration of Lite-On IT's own operating resources with those of BenQ's ODD business unit (acquired by Lite-On IT in April 2006); delays in R&D works on Blu-ray Disc drives, slim-type ODDs and Xbox ODDs; losses due to consumer returns of own-brand DVD recorders sold through the Wal-Mart chain, according to company CEO Danny Liao.
This means it will be no longer possible to get LiteOn drives, possibly even an OEM drive, on a consumer level. Through bulk orders or other vendors, they will still be around, under different names.