Numonyx, the Intel-STMicroelectronics flash memory joint venture, has been sold to Micron in exchange for $1.27bn worth of Micron shares.
The company was formed in 2007 when Intel and ST put their loss-making NOR flash businesses together, took about $100m cash from the deal for themselves, and launched Numonyx with a statement that they would not be putting any money into the business.
Numonyx was started off in business with a bank loan of about $400m and a revolving credit of $250m. At the time Intel was losing about $300m a quarter on its NOR flash business. Numonyx remains loss-making.
Numonyx is 75% a NOR supplier and 25% a NAND supplier and has a ONENAND product which can be used for both data and programme storage. Numonyx's production is currently on 90nm. Numonyx's production focuses on lower density flash memories (512Mbit-1Gbit).
For high density memories or 3bit-per-cell technology, Numonyx relies on its partner, Hynix.
Numonyx made quite a thing of its phase-change memory technology as a possible replacement for floating gate flash, but never made a part denser than 128Mbit, at a time when the leading edge for commercial floating gate memories is 32Gbit.
Micron has, apparently, bought Numonyx for itself, not to fold it into the IM Flash NAND joint venture which Intel and Micron own.
One question is what happens to the Italian government's proposed grant of around €500m to build a 300mm fab in Catania, Sicily, which was first made to ST, then passed on to Numonyx?