Semicon giants give birth to new company

STMicroelectronics, Intel and Francisco Partners have signed a deal to create Numonyx, a new semiconductor company.

Numonyx will ride on its parent companies' successes, and focus on producing NOR, NAND and RAM memory as well as new Phase Change Memory (PCM).

Backed by its parent companies, Numonyx enters high on the memory market with a combined annual revenue of approximately US$3 billion, according to preliminary data from iSupply.

"It is rare when a company starts in such a strong position," said Brian Harrison, chief executive officer of Numonyx. "The complimentary nature of the two parent companies' products, technologies and expertise has given us a competitive edge."

The company said it is currently producing high volume 65nm NOR memory chips and plans to move into the 45nm before the end of the year. It will also own both wafer fabrication and assembly and test manufacturing facilities in addition to holding external supply agreements. These include six 200mm and 300mm wafer labs, including Numoynx-owned facilities in Israel, Italy and Singapore.

The new company will be headed by seasoned industry veterans from both Intel and STMicroelectronics amongst others. Brian Harrison, former vice president and general manager of the Flash Memory Group for Intel has been appointed CEO and Mario Licciardello, corporate vice president and general manager of STMicroelectronics' Flash Memories Group has been appointed COO.

The non-volatile memory market generated nearly US$22.5 billion in revenue in 2007 and is expected to surpass US$37.7 billion by 2011, said a recent iSuppli report.