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Winbond and Qimonda adjust chip agreements

Local memory chipmaker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電) said yesterday it has inked an agreement with Qimonda AG to make and supply computer memory chips at its plant using the European company’s advanced technology by the end of this year.

Winbond will use Qimonda’s 65-nanometer Buried Wordline technology to make dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips used in computers, while canceling an agreement signed in June for transferring 58-nanometer technology from Qimonda, Winbond spokesman Mike Liu (劉重光) said by telephone.

As part of the agreement, Liu said: “We will supply DRAM chips to Qimonda on a contract basis in the early stage. We will gradually increase supply this year and next year.”

Liu said no additional royalties would result from the new agreement and all conditions were similar to the agreement signed in June to transfer 75-nanometer as well as 58-nanometer processing technologies.

However, another local memory chipmaker, Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), said yesterday it would cancel a contract signed with Qimonda in January, aiming to transfer advanced technology in making flash memory chips used in consumer electronics.

“The two sides have agreed to cancel the agreement as Qimonda decided to make full efforts in developing Buried Wordline DRAM technology and thereby to significantly reduce the scope of cooperation with Macronix because of limited resources,” Macronix said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

Winbond shares dropped 0.32 percent, or NT$0.03, to NT$9.42 yesterday, while Macronix declined by 2.51 percent, or NT$0.4, to NT$15.55.

Shares of Qimonda, meanwhile, plunged in Frankfurt yesterday after the company said it lost 482 million euros (US$766.3 million) in its fiscal second quarter and planned to trim its workforce.

Qimonda’s American Depositary Receipts were down 15.7 percent to 1.98 euros in Frankfurt trading after it disclosed the loss late on Monday night.

They also were hampered by an announcement from Infineon Technologies AG — which holds a majority stake in Qimonda — that it would write down its holding in the unit by 1 billion euros. Infineon plans to reduce its 77.5 percent stake in Qimonda to a minority holding.

Qimonda’s losses for the quarter ended March 31 compared with a profit of 57 million euros a year earlier.

The quarterly figures were dragged lower by a 61 million euro write-down.

Quarterly sales fell by 58 percent to 412 million euros from 984 million euros a year earlier.

“Even though second-quarter results show an improvement compared to last quarter, we are still operating in extremely difficult market conditions,” chief executive Loh Kin-wah (羅建華) said in a statement.

Qimonda said it was implementing the second phase of a program intended to reduce costs by 180 million euros.

It will reduce its workforce of 13,500 people by 10 percent on a worldwide basis and reduce production.
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