 Fujitsu Limited will acquire outright two 200mm fabs - JV1 and JV2 - located in Aizu-Wakamatsu in Fukushima prefecture, Japan, previously owned jointly with Spansion Inc. Fujitsu will pay Spansion approximately $150 million in cash in calendar Q2 2007, and will continue production of its Flash memory products as a foundry for Spansion.
Fujitsu plans to expand production of microcontrollers at JV1 and JV2 as well as other logic LSI devices, according to the company. Spansion expects the permanent workforce to remain employed by either Spansion or Fujitsu. Spansion plans to redeploy a portion of the workforce to accelerate Spansion's completion of the SP1 300mm manufacturing facility, and planned ramp of 45nm Flash technology SP1, its JV 300mm manufacturing facility, with Fujitsu in Aizu-Wakamatsu in mid-2008. Cash from the transaction, combined with structured financing, is being put back into the new fab. "Spansion's manufacturing strategy is to focus our capital on leading-edge technologies, provide flexible supply in times of peak demand while continuing a long-term and stable supply to our customers," said Bertrand Cambou, president and CEO, Spansion Inc. "We are pleased that Fujitsu has accepted the responsibility to run our JV1 and JV2 facilities as a foundry for Spansion. The workforce remaining at JV1 and JV2 in Aizu will continue their dedication and service to Spansion customers under Fujitsu's capable leadership, as well as embrace the opportunity to contribute to the future manufacturing of Fujitsu's MCU portfolio." In Spansion's last quarterly conference call with financial analysts, Cambou highlighted that the SP1 had started to be facilitized and could actually start ramping next year using 65nm technology, dependent on demand. Spending for SP1 will be approximately $1.2 billion for a capacity of 15,000 to 20,000wspm. The cost of the project will be spread over 3 years with 2006 costs expected to be $650 million to $800 million, according to Cambou.
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