ok... those in the know need to shed some light on this little deal. micron aquires lexar media? citing superior controller technology? isn't lexar the losers that tried to lock the CF cards to their readers, and if it wasn't a lexar reader limit the speed of transfer or something.. I'm a sandisk fan myself.... but hey... for micron its lexar that floats the wafer.
Friday, March 10, 2006
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yes it seems odd to me too... I think it was just a good opprotunity for micron to get better access to retail channels and probably some patents that they were likely to run into. Lexar got the good end of the deal with flash likely to become a boom and bust kinda market with so many players entering the market (micron and intel tied the unbreakable knot with the imflash deal and will be a serious force to be reconned with). A company like lexar or sandisk could get hung out to dry without some solid access to wafers if supplies get tight. When intel and micron announced the im flash deal sandisk stock tanked the next day. Granted it recovered a little but Sandisk is in a scarry position and their stock reflects it, it has been all over the place lately. It is kinda funny that after the Lexar announcement Micron stock went down and Lexar stock went up... The great thing about the deal for Micron is that it is a stock for stock deal and Micron is buying the company by diluting Micron shares. So basically Micron gets the company for some legal fees and paper work. Lexar gets access to guarenteed wafers since they are now tied to a manufacturer so they got a really good deal out of it (they get guarenteed survival). The interesting thing about the imflash deal is intel and micron both get basically 50% of the flash wafers that are manufactured under the JV. Once the wafers leave the fabs (maybe functional probe/repair I'm not sure if that is falls under the deal or not) intel and micron will be competing for customers. So they're going to be all nice and buddies for r&d and fabrication and then cut throat competition for assembly / test and marketing. Having more brands and channels to sell through makes since for micron since competing with intel is like competing with wal-mart (i.e. they are huge, have loads of cash, and are really good at what they do).
wow. it sure is a fun time to be silicon. I wonder what the next media will be. maybe it'll be those home grown artificial diamonds.
http://extremetechnology.blogspot.com/2006/02/yes-theyre-real.html
awesome high level perspective! since I don't work in fab I needed your side of it.. thanks for the detail.
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