Micron Buys Phase Change Memory Maker Numonyx

Enterprise Storage Forum content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) is acquiring Numonyx, giving the memory chip giant a stake in the promising market for phase change memory (see Phase Change Memory: The Next Big Thing in Data Storage?).

Micron will pay about $1.27 billion in stock for Numonyx, a joint venture of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and STMicroelectronics. The deal also gives the DRAM and NAND maker added presence in the markets for RAM, NOR and NAND flash memory, the technology underpinning solid state drives (SSDs) and other devices.

Micron will also be better positioned to compete against flash makers Samsung, Toshiba and Hynix.

Micron said the deal gives it added manufacturing scale and access to Numonyx’s customer base, “providing significant opportunities to increase multi-chip offerings in the embedded and mobile markets.”

“Acquiring Numonyx brings together two memory leaders and positions Micron to offer the most comprehensive, cost-competitive solutions in the industry to a broad range of customers and end-markets,” Micron CEO Steve Appleton said in a statement.

Numonyx CEO Brian Harrison said the result of the merger will be “a strong company that can best serve our target market segments and customers by delivering enhanced memory solutions, strength and scale. It is good for Numonyx and good for Micron.”

Micron said the deal will add to its earnings in fiscal 2011, which begins in September 2010, and the Numonyx balance sheet is expected to be debt-free following closing. Micron said the acquisition will likely close in three to six months.

Follow Enterprise Storage Forum on Twitter

Paul Shread
Paul Shread
eSecurity Editor Paul Shread has covered nearly every aspect of enterprise technology in his 20+ years in IT journalism, including an award-winning series on software-defined data centers. He wrote a column on small business technology for Time.com, and covered financial markets for 10 years, from the dot-com boom and bust to the 2007-2009 financial crisis. He holds a market analyst certification.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Cloud Insider for top news, trends, and analysis.

Latest Articles

15 Software Defined Storage Best Practices

Software Defined Storage (SDS) enables the use of commodity storage hardware. Learn 15 best practices for SDS implementation.

What is Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)?

Fibre Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE) is the encapsulation and transmission of Fibre Channel (FC) frames over enhanced Ethernet networks, combining the advantages of Ethernet...

9 Types of Computer Memory Defined (With Use Cases)

Computer memory is a term for all of the types of data storage technology that a computer may use. Learn more about the X types of computer memory.