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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scot who wrote (97240)	3/7/2000 9:32:00 AM
From: Scot	Respond to of 1572366

Thread, (credit to Tom Belcher at amdzone.com): semibiznews.com Infineon may leave or alter joint ventures, says IPO prospectus By Jack Robertson, Semiconductor Business News Mar 6, 2000 (6:25 AM) URL: semibiznews.com WASHINGTON -- Infineon Technologies AG in Munich disclosed it may part ways this year with Motorola Inc. in their two joint ventures: the 300-mm wafer development fab in Dresden, Germany, and the White Oak Semiconductor Co. DRAM fab in the United States. Infineon's prospectus for its initial public offiering, released last week, said the Semiconductor300 joint venture in Dresden "is scheduled to terminate in 2000." The document didn't elaborate further, and Infineon officials could not be reached immediately for comment. The 300-mm wafer pilot line, however, has matured to the point that both partners have the necessary data and experience to move into the next stage of production. The prospectus also confirmed reports last July in SBN that Infineon had struck a deal to buy out Motorola's 50% stake in White Oak Semiconductor, outside Richmond, Va. (see July 14, 1999, story ). Until now, both companies have refused to comment, but the IPO document said Infineon had signed an option to pay Motorola $125 million plus 4% interest from Jan. 1, 1999 for its White Oak stake. As part of the deal, Munich-based Infineon said it had made an advance, nonrefundable payment of $83.8 million to Motorola and forgiven $35.6 million in receivables due from the U.S. chip maker. Infineon also disclosed that it had reduced its stake in the Promos Technology Inc. joint ventuyre with Mosel-Vitelic Inc. in Taiwan from 38% equity to 33.6%, and may reduce its equity share further to 25%. Infineon said it has guaranteed the payment of $198 million ProMOS debt and has rescheduled the payment of $108 million that Mosel Vitelic owes Infineon for licensing fees. Infineon is going ahead with negotaitons with the Taiwan firm to license 0.17-micron, 0.14-micron and 0.12-micron production processes. The prospectus reported that ProMOS in 1999 had a net profit of $87 million, compared with a $16 million loss the previous year. ProMOS sales totaled $423 million in 1999, up sharply from $72 million a year earlier. Infineon also reported that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with an unidentified semiconductor company -- which sources believed is Fujitsu Ltd. or Advanced Micro Devices Inc. -- to reopen the shuttered North Tyneside fab in the U.K. as a joint venture to make flash memory. As it turns out, the Infineon's parent, Siemens AG, still owns the North Tyneside fab, which the proposed joint venture would acquire for production of flash chips. The IPO document also revealed more details on Intel Corp.'s $250 million investment in Infineon (see Feb. 21 story ). The German chip maker will use the Intel cash as part of a $1 billion investment for a new 300-mm wafer fab, reportedly to be built at Drseden. Indeed, if Infineon has not equipped the 300-mm fab by 2003, it must pay penalties to Intel. Intel has receives supply rights for an unspecified quantity of DRAMs of all types from Infineon. Infineon also "agreed to support a range of DRAM architectures, including DRAM ICs based on Rambus architecture." An ironic legal note disclosed that Infineon is being sued by a software company, claiming the German firm violated its trademark for the Infineon name. The prospectus said the software firm is expected to demand $20 million to settle its claim, which Infineon said "is unwarranted." Infineon broke down its 1999 sales of $4.24 billion and operating loss of $13 million by the following product categories: Memory -- $1.28 billion sales, $228 million operating loss.Wireless communications -- $895 million sales, $194 million operating profit Communications and periperhals -- $812 million sales, $19 million operating profit Automotive and industrial -- $665 million sales, $23 million operating profit Other segments -- $502 million sales, $35 million profit Corporate reconciliation -- $79 revenue, $56 million operating loss.