Micron Technology completed its purchase of Texas Instruments’ memory business on October 1, 1998. The transaction transferred specified manufacturing sites, joint-venture interests and a Singapore assembly-and-test operation—not Texas Instruments as a whole. Its structure combined Micron shares and notes with separate financing from TI, a 10-year royalty-free cross-license and continuing financial obligations for the seller.
What Micron acquired
TI’s contemporaneous announcement identifies the transferred memory-related assets as:
- TI’s wholly owned semiconductor fabrication plant in Avezzano, Italy.
- TI’s wholly owned semiconductor fabrication plant in Richardson, Texas.
- TI’s interests in joint ventures in Japan and Singapore.
- An assembly-and-test operation in Singapore.
The announcement does not describe a sale of every TI semiconductor facility or all of its manufacturing operations. TI’s October 1, 1998 announcement is the source for the assets and transaction details below.
How the transaction was structured
The consideration involved several instruments with different values. TI reported the market value of the notes separately from their face amounts, so the figures should not be combined as though they were one straightforward purchase-price measure.
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| Component | Amount or reported value |
|---|---|
| Micron common shares | Approximately 28.9 million shares, valued at $881 million at closing |
| Convertible notes | $740 million face amount, convertible into 12 million additional Micron shares |
| Subordinated note | $210 million face amount |
| Market value of the two notes | Approximately $836 million, as reported by TI |
| Separate financing from TI to Micron | $550 million in proceeds to help deploy Micron technology at the acquired operations |
The $550 million was financing, distinct from the shares and notes TI received as transaction consideration. TI said the financing was lower than previously announced because it retained Italian government-sponsored debt.
Technology rights and integration
The transaction included a 10-year royalty-free cross-license agreement. That term supported the technology relationship between the companies, but the announcement does not characterize the license as perpetual or as covering all TI intellectual property.
Micron said it would begin transferring its technology to the acquired operations immediately, with implementation expected to take three to six quarters. The stated timeline makes clear that acquiring facilities was only part of the integration: Micron also needed to deploy its technology across them. This supports reading the deal as a capacity-and-technology integration move, not as evidence of an immediate production increase or a guaranteed financial result.
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Why Micron and TI pursued different strategic outcomes
Micron: broaden manufacturing capacity
Micron’s stated rationale was to combine its technology with the acquired capacity and its manufacturing efficiencies to position the company for future market opportunities. The sites and joint-venture interests gave Micron a broader geographic manufacturing footprint, while the expected technology transfer represented a substantial implementation task. The announcement does not quantify later capacity gains or establish how the acquired operations performed.
TI: concentrate on DSP and analog
TI described the sale as the final major step in its transition toward a business centered primarily on digital signal processing and analog products. This was a move away from memory manufacturing, not an exit from semiconductor manufacturing as a whole.
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TI retained financial exposure after the sale
The announcement describes obligations and accounting treatment that complicate any portrayal of the deal as a clean break for TI:
- TI expected a before-tax gain of approximately $100 million, but said it would defer recognizing that gain until repayment of the financing it provided to Micron.
- TI agreed to guarantee payment obligations of one former joint venture under a newly syndicated credit facility with a $450 million principal amount. The joint venture had borrowed $210 million under the facility at the time of the announcement.
- TI received a security interest in the joint venture’s assets in connection with the guarantee. The guarantee was partially offset by certain contingent funding obligations of the joint-venture shareholders.
These provisions show that TI’s strategic withdrawal from memory came with continuing financing and guarantee-related exposure. They do not establish the eventual amounts repaid or the later outcome of the joint venture.
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What the 1998 announcement can—and cannot—tell us
The announcement establishes the closing date, listed assets, consideration instruments, financing, license term and certain expected integration and accounting details. It does not provide a single standardized transaction-value figure that reconciles all those elements, nor does it establish subsequent ownership, operating status or performance of the sites. Those later questions require separate, current evidence.
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