Micron Technology to acquire Swiss chipmaker Numonyx Holdings for $1.27 billion

Micron Technology, Inc., a manufacturer of DRAM and NAND flash memory chips yesterday entered into a deal to acquire privately-held  Swiss chipmaker Numonyx Holdings BV in an all-stock deal valued at about $1.27 billion.

Rolle, Switzerland-based Numonyx, the world's third-largest maker of flash-type memory chips is a 2008 joint venture of Intel Corporation, STMicroelectronics and private equity firm Fransisco Partners Management.

Francisco Partners invested $150 million and Intel and STM combined their unprofitable flash memory businesses in the joint venture so that it could capture the flash memory chips market through economies of scale.

Numonyx is a leader in NOR memory , which is used for storing code on devices and is used in cell phones, digital still cameras, MP3 players and PCs. Both NAND and NOR flash memory have the ability to retain data when power is turned off, but both are used in different applications.

Idaho-based Micron, with 2009 revenues of $4.8 billion, will issue 140 million Micron common shares to Numonyx shareholders, Intel Corporation, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners.

It will also issue up to 10 million additional Micron common shares based on other factors including the volume weighted average of the price of Micron shares.