After having announced rather significant losses, Micron decided to restructure itself as well as making some investments. First of all, there is the reduction in the price of Flash NAND memory (it’s now sold for lower than production costs), notably on production lines that work with wafers with a diameter of 200mm.
This is why IM Flash Technologies, the Intel / Micron Flash joint-venture, will stop producing Flash NAND in Micron’s factory in Boise, Idaho (25,000 wafers/month). Micron plans on reducing its labor force by 15% over two years, most of the lay-offs at the Boise site.
At the same time, Micron will acquire Qimonda’s (ex-Infineon) 35.6% ownership of Inotera for a sum of 400 millions dollars. Founded in 2003 with Nanya, this memory chip manufacturer has two factories which work on 300mm wafers for a production capacity of 120,000 wafers/month. After finalization of this deal, Micron will have access to 50% of Inotera’s production capacity.
Note that last April, Micron and Nanya signed an agreement to create a joint-venture called MeiYa. Each partner will invest 550 million dollars in order to convert an existing Nanya factory from 200mm to 300mm wafers. These resources will now be diverted to Inotera.
