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Infineon Technologies AG is a German semiconductor manufacturer and was founded on 1 April 1999, when the semiconductor operations of the parent company Siemens AG were spun off to form a separate legal entity. As of 30 September 2010 (2010 -09-30)^[update], Infineon has 25,149 employees worldwide. In the 2010 financial year, the company achieved sales of €3.295 billion.

On 1 May 2006, Infineon's Memory Products division was carved out as a distinct company called Qimonda AG, which, at its height, employed about 13,500 people worldwide. Qimonda was listed on the New York Stock Exchange until 2009.^[2]

Markets[link]

Infineon Technologies AG, in Neubiberg near Munich, offers semiconductors and systems for automotive, industrial, and multimarket sectors, as well as chipcard and security products. With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the USA, from Milpitas, California, and in the Asia-Pacific region, from Singapore and from Tokyo, Japan.

Infineon has a number of facilities in Europe, one also in Dresden Europe's microelectronic, and emerging technologies center. Infineon's high power segment is in Warstein, Germany; Villach, Austria; Cegléd, Hungary; and Italy. It also runs R&D centers in France, Singapore, Romania, Taiwan, and Bangalore, as well as fabrication units in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China.

Infineon is listed in the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

In 2010, a proxy contest broke out in advance of the impending shareholders' meeting over whether board member Klaus Wucherer would be allowed to step into the chairman's office upon the retirement of the then-current chairman Max Dietrich Kley.

After several restructurings, Infineon today comprises three business areas:

Automotive[link]

Infineon provides semiconductor products for use in powertrains (engine and transmission control), comfort electronics (e.g., steering, shock absorbers, air conditioning) as well as in safety systems (ABS, airbags, ESP). The product portfolio includes microcontrollers, power semiconductors and sensors. In fiscal year 2010 (ending September), sales amounted to € 1,268 million for the ATV segment.

Industrial & Multimarket (IMM)[link]

The industrial division of the company includes power semiconductors and modules which are used for generation, transmission and consumption of electrical energy. Its application areas include control of electric drives for industrial applications and household appliances, modules for renewable energy production, conversion and transmission, semiconductor components for lighting management systems and LED lighting, power supplies for servers, PCs, notebooks and consumer electronics, custom devices for peripheral devices, game consoles, applications in medical technology, high-frequency components having a protective function for communication and tuner systems and silicon MEMS microphones. IMM achieved in fiscal year 2010 sales of € 1,374 million.

Chip Card & Security (CCS)[link]

The CCS business provides microcontrollers for mobile phone SIM cards, payment cards, security chips and chip-based solutions for passports, identity cards and other official documents. Infineon delivers a significant number of chips for the new German identity card.^[3] In addition, CCS provides solutions for applications with high security requirements such as pay television and Trusted Computing. CSS achieved € 407 million in fiscal year 2010.

Acquisitions and divestitures[link]

The former memory chip division was carved out in 2006 as Infineon’s subsidiary Qimonda, of which Infineon last held a little over three quarters. In January 2009, Qimonda filed for bankruptcy with the district court in Munich. On 7 July 2009, Infineon Technologies AG agreed by contract with the U.S. investor Golden Gate Capital on the sale of its Wireline Communications for € 250 million.^[4] The resulting new company is now known as Lantiq.^[5]

On 31 January 2011 the sale of the business segment of wireless solutions to Intel was completed. The resulting new company has approximately 3,500 employees and now operates as Intel Mobile Communications (IMC).^[6][7]

Investors[link]

Major institutional investors in Infineon are: Dodge and Cox International: 10.03%, Merrill Lynch International: 5.25%, Templeton Global Advisors Limited: 5.16%, Capital Group International: 4.14%.^[8]

Price fixing controversy[link]

In 2004–2005 an investigation was carried out into a worldwide DRAM price fixing conspiracy during 1999–2002 that damaged competition and raised PC prices. As a result, Samsung is to pay $300 million fine, Hynix was to pay $185 million in 2005, Infineon: $160 million in 2004. Micron Technology cooperated with prosecutors and no fine is expected.

AENEON[link]

AENEON was introduced in 2005. AENEON is a DRAM memory family of Infineon and fits into standard PCs and notebooks.

AENEON targets whitebox (non-brand) PC and notebook manufacturers world wide, as well as the European retail segment and end users (web shop). AENEON DRAM memory focuses the "price-performance" segment.

Price advantages are obtained due to a limited product portfolio (only unbuffered and SO-DIMM), and due to outsourced module assembly. The DRAM components, however, are "Made by Infineon".

Notes[link]

See also[link]

Companies portal

• Texas Instruments
• STMicroelectronics
• Marvell Technology Group
• Freescale
• NXP Semiconductors
• Renesas
• International Rectifier
• Fairchild Semiconductor
• Semikron
• Dynex Semiconductor

External links[link]

• Official website
• Infineon Stock OTC

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