At yesterday’s results meeting, Intel CEO Paul Otellini gave his clearest hint yet that he’s considering dumping Intel’s stake in the IM Flash joint venture with Micron Technology.
“We entered this business to make money and we will continue to make the appropriate decisions necessary to that end," said Otellini, "we will continue to look at other options and keep you informed."
When specifically asked if he was going to get out of the NAND business, Otellini replied: "There's a lot of ideas that we have here. Talking about them publicly before they're realised or discussed I think is inappropriate and weakens our negotiating position and our options. Really can't comment on that prior to doing it. We had similar questions raised on NOR a year and a half ago. About what are you going to do about it. Couldn't answer those even though we were in discussions with ST at that time."
So it looks as if another Intel ‘diversification’ (a.k.a 'emporary aberration') is about to fold.
Either Otellini is so terrified of Wall Street analysts that he does whatever they tell him to do, or he has no faith in Intel’s ability to manage any business in which the company doesn’t have a monopoly.
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