Micron Buys 36 Percent of Inotera Memories

On Sunday, Micron Technology, Inc. announced that it would acquire the $400 million stake that Qimonda AG owns in Inotera Memories. According to Micron, this deal is seen as a further expansion of the company's relationship with Nanya Technology, the firm that founded Inotera together with Qimonda (which used to be the memory products division of Infineon Technologies).

After the deal is closed, Micron expects to get access to half of the manufacturing capacity of Inotera, while the other would be allocated to Nanya. Currently, Inotera has two 300-millimeter wafer fabrication facilities, which allow it produce about 120,000 wafers per month. Micron also announced that it would share its Stack DRAM technology with Inotera, this way enabling it to fabricate Stack DRAM products for both Micron and Nanya.

The Boise, Idaho memory chipmaker expects its economies of scale to receive a nice boost from the stake in Inotera. “Micron will gain greater scale in DRAM, reduce our operating expenses per wafer and have access to a very cost competitive operation,” Micron Chairman and CEO Steve Appleton said in a statement.

According to Micron, the acquisition of Qimonda's stake will be made in two stages. During the next week, the company expects to buy half of the stake for $200 million in cash, accounting for about 18 percent of Inotera, as the transaction needs governmental approvals and must respect certain customary conditions. The acquisition of the rest of the stake, another 18 percent of the joint venture, is subject to Taiwan Federal Trade Commission's approval and other customary conditions.

The memory chipmaker also stated that Qimonda's share of Inotera's capacity would stand in the rampant position over a period of months after the transaction. Also, the company expects the previously-announced MeiYa joint venture with Nanya to be restructured. “It is anticipated that both parties will cease future resource commitments to MeiYa and redirect those resources to Inotera,” Micron said.

Micron got $285 million from strategic sources to be able to fund the purchase. The chipmaker previously announced that during the following two years, it plans to reduce its global workforce by around 15 percent since it is also decreasing the flash memory chip production in Boise, Idaho.