Electronics Production |
Ramtron to swap Fujitsu for Texas Instruments & IBM
Ramtron will transition - over the next two years - the manufacturing of products that are currently being built at Fujitsu’s chip foundry located in Iwate, Japan to its foundry at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas and to its newest foundry at IBM Corporation in Essex Junction, Vermont.
Ramtron has established a transition plan with Fujitsu that is designed to meet customer delivery requirements and ensure an orderly transition of products to the new facilities.
“With the greater product development flexibility afforded by our U.S.-based manufacturing sources, we are moving forward with our strategic initiatives to build new devices that will feature faster device speeds and lower operating voltages, among other enhancements", commented Ramtron's CEO Bill Staunton.
“After implementing the cost reduction actions last month, we re-evaluated the amount of debt we would need to support the capital and development costs of the foundry agreement with IBM and concluded that an $11.0 million term loan facility was not necessary,” concluded Mr Staunton. “However, we are working with Silicon Valley Bank to increase the borrowing base under our revolving line, and to extend the maturity to March of 2012. At this level of debt we will have the financial flexibility to execute all of our growth plans while staying comfortably within our debt to capital parameters.”
