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According the magazine FabTech, which quotes correspondence received from Numonyx employees, the company is reducing headcount and closing facilities.
Reports say that Numonyx will close its California Technology Centre (CTC), a former Intel fab in Santa Clara which was then used as an R&D centre.
When Intel and STMicroelectronics put their heavily loss-making NOR flash businesses together to form Numonyx, the CTC went, along with other Intel assets, into the joint venture.
Not much hope was held out for the profitability of Numonyx which was incorporated earlier this year.
Asked in June if ST expected a positive contribution from Numonyx in the second half of the year, ST CEO, Carlo Bozotti, replied: "I expect Q1 will be accretive for ST compared to the previous situation."
Asked to expand on that, Bozotti replied: "Accretive compared to what we had before, but the target is to be positive." Asked if Numonyx could be profitable in Q4, Bozotti replied: "Could be."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Numonyx's prospects.
According to the FabTech report, continuing price declines are forcing closure of the CTC on Numonyx. The closure is believed to come into effect by April, 2009. According to the Numonyx sources, the news was announced by Greg Attwood and BJ Woo co-directors of CTC.
Last week Numonyx said it was linking with Hynix to try and get into the NAND flash business where prices are also declining fast, and where it will find itself in competition with long-pocketed competitors such as Toshiba, Samsung and the Intel-Micron joint venture, IM Flash.
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