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To: goldsnow who wrote (7129)	10/14/1998 9:57:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10921

Micron to pump US$500m into S'pore acquisitions Upgraded facilities will help meet demand for high-memory chips By Annette Pau [SINGAPORE] U S memory chip maker Micron Technology plans to spend some US$500 million (S$815 million) over the next two years to transfer technology and new equipment to its newly-acquired operations here. In June Micron acquired Texas Instruments' loss-making memory operations worldwide, which includes its Bendemeer assembly and test facilities in Singapore. It also took over TI's 30 per cent stake in Tech Semiconductor, a maker of memory chip wafers here jointly owned by the Economic Development Board, Hewlett-Packard and Canon. Micron chairman and chief executive Steve Appleton said yesterday that the investments would position the company to meet demand for higher memory products from PC makers. New semiconductor technology and equipment will help facilitate Micron's move from production of 16-megabit dynamic random access memory chips based on 0.25-micron technology to higher value 64MB chips, and the eventual migration to 128MB chip production using 0.18-micron technology, he added. Mr Appleton said Tech Semi is hiring engineering staff to add to its 800-900-strong workforce, while there are no plans to lay off anyone at Micron's 2,000-strong test plant in the transition to higher technology products. The purchase of Dallas-based TI's memory business, when completed later this year, will catapult Micron into the No 1 spot with a 17 per cent share of the memory market worldwide. Micron's acquisition also includes TI's plants in Italy, the US and its stake in KTI Semiconductor in Japan. TI will become a shareholder of Micron as it will receive Micron shares in exchange for its memory operations. Mr Appleton said the memory operations will continue to make losses for "another couple of quarters". For the quarter ended June, TI's memory operations lost US$222 million, but "we don't expect anything near that much in the next couple of quarters", he said. Micron itself took a US$89 million loss in its latest quarter ended Sept 3. The deal between Micron and TI has been well received by the market. Analysts see it as a chance for TI to bow out of its memory business and refocus on its digital signal processing products. Micron, which is strong in memory chips, gets extra financing and a boost in market share. business-times.asia1.com.sg