Who is Steve Appleton?
Micron scores as others in DRAM arena hemorrhage
ByJack Robertson
Steve Appleton is nothing if not a competitor.
Playing for Boise State University in a 1982 Big Sky tennis tournament, the future chairman and chief executive of Micron Technology Inc. slipped on the court and broke his right hand. The next day, undeterred, he cut off the cast and played in the finals, finishing second in singles and first in doubles. The right-hander went on to complete the season playing as a lefty.
His time at Boise State was a fitting prelude to his professional career. He joined Micron in 1983, earning $4.46 an hour on the new chip company's 64-Kbit DRAM line. Western grit carried him from the production floor to director of manufacturing, and ultimately to president of the company.
Appleton, who says he likes to work quietly, got some attention early in 1996 during a dispute with a board member that led to Appleton's resignation. A week later, however, J.R. Simplot, a billionaire who made his fortune in potatoes and is a major Micron shareholder, made it known that he thought the dispute had "gotten out of hand," but that the "differences have been worked out and the company is ready to move forward." Translation: Appleton was back.
This year, Appleton made his biggest splash yet as Micron bested Japanese and South Korean companies to become the world's largest unit-volume producer of DRAM. Unlike some of its U.S. compatriots, Micron had refused to abandon the DRAM market to trans-Pacific rivals.
While almost everyone else in the DRAM business swam in red ink in 1997, Micron was able to make money. The company's secret? Conversion to smaller geometries and larger wafers.
Probably the strongest endorsement of Appleton comes from a rival in Japan. "Micron is a very tough competitor," said Hajime Sasaki, senior executive vice president at NEC Corp.
Appleton is not afraid to do his own thing. He sees no reason for Micron to sponsor a table at the Semiconductor Industry Association's annual dinners. At the 1996 bash, Appleton sat with a fellow executive, Craig Barrett, president of Intel Corp., at the microprocessor giant's table. This year, Appleton sat at an SIA table.
Appleton's soft-spoken exterior in corporate, industry, and global trade discussions masks a bulldog strategist. His vision has been to parlay Micron's chip expertise into a stable of affiliated companies. The company's PC business, Micron Electronics Inc., like its sister chip operation, emerged from the back of the pack this year to become a major market player.
The bargain-basement acquisition of Zeos International Ltd. in 1995 gave Micron Electronics entry into the workstation and chip-set-design businesses. A framed copy of a Wall Street Journal article on the Zeos deal hangs on Appleton's office wall.
Lately, however, Appleton has talked about selling all or part of Micron Electronics, which includes a contract manufacturing operation.
Other Micron enterprises include fledgling businesses that are working to develop field-emission displays and radio-transmitting identity cards and tags. On the back burner is a sprawling complex of production facilities in Lehi, Utah, that Appleton said will be equipped "only when we can bring it up profitably."
DRAM ramp-ups by Japanese and South Korean manufacturers over the past two years get Appleton's dander up. "It makes no sense for them to keep adding capacity when they are already losing money in the market," he said. "They are only out to kill other DRAM manufacturers, regardless of the cost."
This source of rancor has kept Micron Technology at the forefront of antidumping litigation. The complaints that the company has filed with the Commerce Department have unsettled rivals in Asia. Fear of yet another complaint from Micron helped lead South Korean and some Japanese producers to put a lid on production growth this year. At the same time, Micron quietly doubled its output.
Appleton has become an important player on the global business stage. He was named by President Clinton to serve on the National Semiconductor Technology Council. He was also one of three SIA executives who negotiated the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Agreement in the summer of 1996.
Micron's success hasn't taken the edge off the former university tennis star's determination. The current prolonged DRAM-price bloodletting "is making it very hard in the market," he conceded. But at match point, Appleton "will continue to do what it takes to win." |
