Qimonda cuts staff as North America R&D activities consolidate

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- Electronic News, 12/19/2007

Qimonda North America Corp. announced last Friday its plans to consolidate all of its North American design and development operations and integrating them at its Raleigh, North Carolina location, which the company expects will allow it to better utilize existing resources, improve efficiencies and contain costs. 

As part of this, Qimonda’s design and development center in Burlington, Vermont will be closed. This site employs approximately 125 people, and a company spokesperson said Qimonda hopes 50 to 75 will transfer to Raleigh.

The company said some of its Burlington employees to relocate to the consolidated development center in Raleigh, which develops memory products for consumer and mobile markets, with the consolidation to be completed by the end of June 2008.

In other consolidation efforts, Qimonda announced recently that it would discontinue the contract manufacturing of 200 mm production in Europe and Asia, while increasing its 300 mm capacity and accelerating the conversion to 80 and 75 nm technology, as part of the company’s efforts to improve its overall competitive position.

Henry Becker, president of Qimonda North America added in a statement, “The globally competitive memory business requires that we continuously look for opportunities to improve our operational efficiencies and optimize our structure. By combining the two operations into a single larger development center our customers will reap the benefits of improved efficiency. I want to acknowledge the employees for their efforts which produced many outstanding designs as well as thank the State of Vermont and the University of Vermont for their support over the years.”