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Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kerry Phineas who wrote (26950)	1/22/1998 3:56:00 PM
From: Eric Maggard	Respond to of 53903

Appleton goes to bat for 'all Americans' Micron chief says Koreans getting unfair boost by Michelle Cole The Idaho Statesman Micron Technology inc. Chairman Steve Appleton will go to Washington D.C., next month to warn Congress against allowing a U.S. bailout of his company's competitors in South Korea. Appleton, who runs Idaho's largest private employer, is scheduled to testify Feb. 3 before the House Banking and Financial Services Committee. His concern: A $57 billion International Monetary Fund aid package to Korea will go directly to his competitors. "We know today, from certain equipment manufacturers, that they're being told by Korean semiconductor companies they can't accept assignment of any equipment they've ordered now," Appleton said in an interview Tuesday. "But those companies are saying as soon as they get the IMF funding worked out, they're going to be able to accept delivery. This is absoluely appalling," he said. Appleton will represent technology companies during the hearings, a committee spokesman said Tuesday. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin will lead off the testimony at the an earlier session Jan. 30. "I am not raising the flag for Micron, but for all Americans," Appleton said. He said IMF has a track record of lending moey without holding countries accountable for how the money is spent. "Any funding that does occur with the IMF should have conditions on it, and it should be enforced," he said. "Without reform, it's like drug money - they simply show up asking for more," Appleton said. Boise based Micron contends Korean semiconductor companies have received sweet-heart government loans to expand their capacity to make memory chips. With the help of this cheap money, Appleton said, Korean semiconductor companies have flooded the market, driving prices artificially low. Now Appleton said Micron's Korean competitors are bankrupt. But they still are selling chips below cost to raise cash. Until this quarter, Micron was believed to be the only memory chip maker in the world still making a profit. The company's net income, for the first quarter ended Nov. 27, was $9.6 million - the lowest in 5 years. This time, Micron said it may only break even. Micron employs more than 12,000 people in Idaho and is trying to hire more. Micron also had planned to invest between $600 million and $1 billion this year on its Boise plant and its unfinished plant in Lehi, Utah. On Tuesday, Appleton said that investment is subject to review. "It's changing all the time," he said. "I can tell you that the market is horrible."