With Qimonda causing Infineon so much grief, why hasn't Infineon got rid of it yet? The question was asked at this week's IET/GSA (Institution of Engineering and Technology/Global Semiconductor Alliance) International Semiconductor Forum at the ExCel conference centre in East London.
On the receiving end was Eric Mayer, Vice President of Production Partner Management at Infineon.
Mayer, a lawyer and former employee of KPMG and Daimler Benz, manfully tackled the question:
"The short answer is that if you look at the CVs of our senior executives, everyone came through the DRAM school", said Mayer, "change in Germany is not easy. They just can't let go. They may have lost time by not starting earlier."
And the long answer? "To resolve the cross-licensing issues, and carve out 12,000 people in a business representing half the revenues, is not easy to do", replied Mayer, "and we don't have too many semiconductor executives to staff an independent company."
Yesterday Qimonda laid off 600 employees at its Dresden HQ. The company is offering Infineon employees 5000 euros a head if they leave Infineon and join Qimonda, but is not saying how many have taken up the offer.
In 2006 Qimonda acquired a separate listing on the New York stock exchange, but Infineon still owns 77 per cent of Qimonda's shares. Last month Infineon wrote down the book valuation of its shares in Qimonda by one billion euros.
Mayer, a lawyer and former employee of KPMG and Daimler Benz, manfully tackled the question:
"The short answer is that if you look at the CVs of our senior executives, everyone came through the DRAM school", said Mayer, "change in Germany is not easy. They just can't let go. They may have lost time by not starting earlier."
And the long answer? "To resolve the cross-licensing issues, and carve out 12,000 people in a business representing half the revenues, is not easy to do", replied Mayer, "and we don't have too many semiconductor executives to staff an independent company."
Yesterday Qimonda laid off 600 employees at its Dresden HQ. The company is offering Infineon employees 5000 euros a head if they leave Infineon and join Qimonda, but is not saying how many have taken up the offer.
In 2006 Qimonda acquired a separate listing on the New York stock exchange, but Infineon still owns 77 per cent of Qimonda's shares. Last month Infineon wrote down the book valuation of its shares in Qimonda by one billion euros.
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