Intel, Texas Instruments Sell 3.3 Million Micron Technology Shares
WASHINGTON -- Two of Micron Technology Inc.'s (MU) largest shareholders, Intel Corp. (INTC) and Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), sold a total of 3.3 million shares of Micron common stock, according to representatives for the companies.
Both companies indicated in separate forms filed recently with the Securities and Exchange Commission that they intended to sell the shares last week.
Gail Chandler, a spokeswoman for Texas Instruments, confirmed that the company sold 1.06 million Micron shares last week.
Before the sale, Texas Instruments owned about 57.8 million Micron shares as a result of the spinoff of its memory business to Micron on Oct. 1, 1998.
Commenting on the timing of the sale, Chandler said, "Texas Instruments is committed to selling in an orderly manner, and is not trying in any way to sell on the peaks of Micron's stock."
Chandler added that Texas Instruments intends to use the money from the sale for strategic purposes.
Robert Manetta, an Intel spokesman, confirmed that the company sold about 2.2 million Micron shares last week for about $137 million in proceeds. Before the sale, Intel owned about 31.6 million Micron shares, according to Manetta.
Manetta said Intel has a sizeable portfolio, consisting of about $10.8 billion in 425 public and private companies, so it's not uncommon for Intel to be selling.
"Intel continually reviews the public market conditions and looks for opportunities to sell all or part of its holdings, and the company may decrease its investments in some holdings and reinvest that money into other equity holdings or into things internally at Intel," Manetta said.
A spokesperson for Micron said that the company isn't sure why Intel and Texas Instruments decided to sell some of its shares last week.
"As investors it may have made sense for them to sell some stock and move some rationally. It is a small percentage of the companies' holdings," the Micron representative said.
Micron Technology, based in Boise, Idaho, makes dynamic random access memory chips, static and video RAMs and other semiconductor memory products.
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