Texas Instruments Plans to Hold Micron Shares for Now, CEO Says
Texas Instruments Plans to Hold Micron Shares for Now, CEO Says
Dallas, Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Texas Instruments Inc., the No. 1 maker of semiconductors for cellular telephones, plans to hold on to its 11.5 percent stake in Micron Technology Inc. until the market for computer-memory chips rebounds, Chief Executive Tom Engibous said.
Texas Instruments, based in Dallas, got 28.9 million Micron shares when it sold its memory business to Micron in October in a transaction worth $881 million. Since then, Micron stock has more than doubled. The shares fell 2 1/4 to 65 9/16 in late trading.
Though all restrictions on selling the stock have expired, Engibous said he thinks the shares will go higher as the market for dynamic random-access memory chips, the most common memory in personal computers, rebounds. ''The restriction is that the DRAM market is in the tank,'' Engibous said in an interview.
Texas Instruments knows about fluctuation in memory-chip prices. During the past decade, the chips accounted for as much as 40 percent of the company's revenue.
It sold the business to focus on digital-signal processors, chips that convert signals such as light and sound into computer language in real time. Those chips are key components of devices such as cell phones and computer modems.
Last month, shares of Boise, Idaho-based Micron surged as higher prices for memory chips spurred optimism that a two-year slump may be easing.
The slump in PC demand that many analysts expected for the summer hasn't occurred, and back-to-school demand has picked up earlier than usual.
Texas Instruments shares fell 2 15/16 to 138 9/16. The stock has more than doubled in the past year |
