Micron steaming ahead today. Mark Adams spoke in Taiwan yesterday, here is Digitimes' report on it.
Micron pursues profit growth after Elpida acquisition
Josephine Lien, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Monday 5 August 2013]
Micron Technology is putting profits first instead of fighting for market share, according to company president Mark Adams. After acquiring Elpida Memory, the US memory chipmaker will not blindly expand production capacity in a bid to earn larger market shares.
Micron completed its Elpida acquisiton on July 31. The deal has boosted Micron's DRAM production capacity significantly with wafer volume now close to industry leader Samsung Electronics'.
Micron will be engaged in developing high value-added products, which means the company is looking to put a lot of efforts into R&D and innovation, said Adams. The goal is to improve profitability and ensure that return on equity is high, Adams indicated.
With enough scale, Micron can better manage and allocate its resources to support R&D projects for new technologies and products, Adams noted.
In Asia, Micron has four production bases specializing in different product lines. Adams disclosed that its Singapore fab will be focused on the manufacture of NAND flash memory, while the Hiroshima plant formerly run by Elpida will be dedicated to producing mobile DRAM chips with monthly capacity of about 100,000 12-inch wafers.
Micron's production subsidiaries in Taiwan - Inotera Memories and Rexchip Electronics - will continue to focus on their existing product lines, Adams revealed. Micron owns 35.5% of Inotera. And as a result of its Elpida acquisition, Micron holds an 89% stake in Rexchip.
Micron does not plan to license NAND flash process technology to its Taiwan subsidiaries in the short term, Adams added. Inotera mainly makes PC- and server-use DRAM products, while Rexchip manufactures mobile DRAMs as well as commodity chips.
Micron is also looking to negotiate with the other Rexchip's shareholder, Kingston Technology, about the possibility of taking up the remainding 11% stake in the subsidiary, Adams noted.
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