Micron Technology - Micron Technology

Micron Technology, Inc. is an American global corporation based in Boise, Idaho which produces many forms of semiconductor devices, including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and solid-state drives. Its consumer products are marketed under the brands Crucial Technology and Lexar. Micron and Intel together created IM Flash Technologies, which produces NAND flash memory. Micron was named one of Thomson Reuters top 100 global innovators in 2012 and 2013. Micron Technology is also ranked among the Top 5 Semiconductor producing companies in the world.

History

1978â€"1999

Micron was founded in Boise, Idaho, in 1978 by Ward Parkinson, Joe Parkinson, Dennis Wilson, and Doug Pitman as a semiconductor design consulting company. Startup funding was provided by local Idaho businessmen Tom Nicholson, Allen Noble, Rudolph Nelson, and Ron Yanke. Later it received funding from Idaho billionaire J. R. Simplot, whose fortune was made in the potato business. In 1981, the company moved from consulting to manufacturing with the completion of its first wafer fabrication unit ("Fab 1"), producing 64K DRAM chips.

In 1994, founder Joe Parkinson retired as CEO and Steve Appleton took over as Chairman, President, and CEO.

A 1996 3-way merger among ZEOS International, Micron Computer, and Micron Custom Manufacturing Services (MCMS) increased the size and scope of the company; this was followed rapidly with the 1997 acquisition of NetFrame Systems, in a bid to enter the mid-range server industry.

2000â€"present

Micron and Intel created a joint venture in 2005, based in IM Flash Technologies in Lehi, Utah. This proved so successful that the two companies formed another joint venture in 2011, IM Flash Singapore, in Singapore. In 2012, Micron became sole owner of this second joint venture.

The company again changed leadership in June 2007 with COO Mark Durcan becoming President.

In 2008, Micron spun off Aptina Imaging, which is currently a privately-held company. Micron retained a stake in the spinoff. However, the core company suffered setbacks requiring layoffs of 15 percent of its workforce in October 2008, during which period the company also announced the purchase of Qimonda's stake in Inotera technologies for $400 million. 2009 saw this trend of layoffs and acquisitions continue with the termination of an additional 2,000 employees and the acquisition of the FLCOS microdisplay company Displaytech. With the company's increasing fortunes, Micron was able to acquire agreed to buy flash-chip maker Numonyx for issuance of $1.27 billion in stock.

On February 3, 2012, the CEO, Steve Appleton, died in a small Lancair plane crash in Boise, Idaho. Mark Durcan replaced Appleton as the CEO shortly thereafter, eliminating his former title of President.

In the 2012-2014 period, Micron again went through an acquisition-layoff cycle, becoming the majority shareholder of Inotera Memories, purchasing Elpida Memory and Powerchip., while announcing plans to layoff approximately 3,000 workers.

In 2015, Micron and Intel embarked on another joint venture, 3D XPoint non-volatile memory. Micron also acquired Tidal Systems.

In December of 2016, Micron finished acquiring the remaining 67% of Inotera’s stake and made Inotera a 100% subsidiary of Micron in Taiwan.

Products

Micron makes DRAM Memory components and modules, including SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, DDR2 SDRAM, DDR3 SDRAM, DDR4 SDRAM, LPDRAM, RLDRAM, PSRAM, and multi-chip packages. It also makes NAND, Managed NAND and NOR flash memory, and SSDs. Lexar and Crucial are some of the most popular brands the company uses to distribute its products.

In late 2009, the company was the first to announce a solid-state drive (SSD) using a 6 Gbit/s SATA interface.