News and New Products

Qimonda delays results announcement, pins hopes on partnership talks

Hard-hit memory company hopes ongoing discussions will yield an announcement within "next few weeks."

By Matthew Miller, Editor in Chief, EDN.com -- EDN, 12/1/2008

Struggling memory maker Qimonda AG today announced that it will delay announcing results for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year, which ended Sept. 30, until mid-December in hopes that ongoing partnership discussions will yield an agreement within that time frame.

In a carefully worded statement, the Munich-based company said it is "making progress" in its discussions with "several potential strategic and financial investors" and that the delay is necessary because any potential agreement would impact its financial condition.

The company said it expects to announce Q4 net sales of €476 million (approximately $601 million), an increase of 24% compared with fiscal Q3, but added that both operating and net losses have expanded, largely due to a writedown of its stake in Inotera Memories. In October, the company announced restructuring efforts including 3000 layoffs (see "Qimonda slashes 3000 jobs, exits 200-mm production, CFO resigns").

The company is "making good progress" on its repositioning plan and efforts to reduce its cash burn rate, CEO Kin Wah Loh (pictured) said today in a statement. While noting encouraging yield results for its 65-nm buried wordline technology, as well as first yield for the 46-nm version, the company nonetheless warned that if it fails to secure a partnership and/or fails in its efforts to reduce its costs, it anticipates liquidity shortfalls during the first calendar quarter of 2009.