EETimes: It seems that Micron Imaging separation process is moving fast.
"Micron is in the final stages of separating the operations of its CMOS image sensor business to be a stand alone entity. While Micron did not provide further details for its image sensor business, we believe Micron is looking at a potential JV or sale in which it will own a minority stake," said Betsy Van Hees, an analyst with SG Cowen Securities. Hess attended Micron's analyst day this week.
I don’t quite understand the logic behind Micron’s decision to spin off the image sensor business. I thought it was a good diversification strategy a few years ago. The sensor market is less volatile than DRAM and typically the sensors have better margins than DRAM too. Micron’s competitor Hynix just decided to re-enter the CIS business, yet Micron is doing the opposite. Why? With Micron’s size and capacity, it’s hard to imagine that they say they don’t have the bandwidth to do well in both memory and sensors. What's your take?
ReplyDeleteI think that Micron just let other PRO-SALES to manage the business their strategy will be a design-house of CIS and also they will tape out in micron's wafer fab. they do lots change to change the marketshare because they just had the customer~ MOTO. And now the MOTO seems to be so weak in the cellphone market...ao that Micron do the action to change the direction to other customer..
ReplyDeleteThe first spin-off rumors surfaced in July, after Micron reported its first quarterly loss in imaging and two quarters of market share erosion. By that time a year passed since Micron announced its 1.4um technology demo and the product development seemed to be stumbled.
ReplyDeleteLooking back, Micron was an undisputed leader in 3.2, 2.8 and 2.2um pixel generation. In 1.75um pixels the gap between Micron and others became narrower. And, I think, Micron is going to be a "me too" player in 1.4um sensors and would compete primarily on price.
So imaging business value is on descending curve. Probably Micron decided to sell it now, because the future price would be lower.