Intel, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners Close Transaction to Create Numonyx

[malware]

Intel Corporation today announced that the company has finalized and closed its transaction with STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners to create a new independent semiconductor company Numonyx B.V. that will design, develop and manufacture NOR and NAND flash memory products. As part of the transaction, Intel has transferred the assets associated with its NOR flash memory business and certain assets related to the company's phase change memory initiatives to Numonyx in exchange for 45.1 percent ownership in Numonyx. ST Microelectronics acquired a 48.6 percent ownership interest in Numonyx. Francisco Partners acquired a 6.3 percent ownership interest in exchange for a cash investment of $150 million.


As part of the overall transaction, Numonyx will receive $450 million of debt financing at closing from Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A and Unicredit Banca d'Impresa S.p.A in addition to a $100 million committed revolving credit facility. The loan has a 4-year term and Intel and STMicroelectronics have each provided Numonyx and the banks with a guarantee of 50 percent of the indebtedness.

Intel estimates that it will record additional non-cash impairment of approximately $300 million related to the assets transferred to Numonyx and other costs associated with this transaction in the first quarter of 2008. Approximately 2,500 Intel employees are joining Numonyx as part of this transaction.

Source: Intel

[tomkaten]

Guess Intel wants to be a player when the good times roll and SSD grabs the market. I see some tough times ahead for the likes of Seagate and WD unless they start doing something fast.

Unless a new "revolutionary" technology comes along, SSD's are the future.

[qwerty_lesh]

ssd's still, and seems like will allways face the problem of only being able to be written to a number of times before the sdd becomes completely expired and unusable, for this reason i dont think that hard drive manufacturers have too much to worry about, well aside from a temporary competition in the storage market, plus the only real truely suitable use for ssd's are for notebooks and ultra portable computing devices and similar stuff.

I read an article a couple of months back about researches finding a way to store data on tiny nano carbon tubes or somthing [cant really remember i wasnt payign a huge amount of attention] I hope technologies like this are the way of the future as I would love to move away from mechanical components which can fail as easily as being bumped too hard whilst their operating.
But at the same time currently ssd's are far too impractical for desktop use, limited write life alone.. dont get me started on current prices, i know their getting cheaper but when u can go and get twice the capacity for well under half the cost, i'd put up with a platter and keep the cash.

lets hope that some technology is created soonish which where everyone can enjoy insane capacities, flawless operability, longevity and of course affordability, untill then i'll continue to back hdd manufacturers. thats imo, but everyone has their own.