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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (46388)	2/9/1999 11:15:00 PM
From: Peter Singleton	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

lemme see, who'm I gonna believe ... <g> biz.yahoo.com Micron sees market shr gains if prices hold By Andrew Hay NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (Reuters) - Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE:MU - news), its sales buoyed by strong demand for personal computers and larger corporate systems, said Tuesday it expects to gain about five additional percentage points of market share in the computer memory chip market in fiscal 1999 as chip demand outstrips supply. The Boise, Idaho firm expects to take its share of the computer memory chip market to as high as 25 percent by August, when its 1999 year ends, Micron spokesman Kipp Bedard said during a presentation to money managers at the annual Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium here. Micron's market share is around 18 percent, according to industry estimates. Micron sees itself gaining business as Korean competitors such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd . And rivals in Japan, like NEC Corp . and Toshiba Corp . lose market share, even as Taiwanese firms like Nanya and Winbond stand to increase their share of the memory chip market. ''We're expecting around five percent market share penetration this year,'' Bedard said, in an interview following his talk to investors. Bedard said memory chip prices were ''stable'' and had actually improved since the company's second quarter ended in November. ''As an industry we're shipping what we're producing,'' he said. The company's optimistic outlook comes amid recent signs the battered semiconductor industry may be in for brighter days. After years of decline as over-capacity forced prices lower and plants to close, the industry is poised for price stability or even gains. While Micron sees industry demand increasing 80 percent during its 1999 fiscal year it sees industry supply of memory chips increasing by only 60 percent to 70 percent, signaling a favorable upturn. Its computer memory chips provide the rapid recall behind a huge range of electronics devices such as personal computers, mobile phones and industrial control systems. Micron, the only major U.S. memory chip maker remaining after its 1998 acquisition of Texas Instruments Inc.'s Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) business. South Korean companies hold 35 percent of the market followed by several in Japan with under 30 percent, putting Micron at the head of the pack. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), an industry trade group sees demand for computer chips improving as cheaper personal computers, mobile phones, digital cameras and other new information devices stoke the need for more chips.