Micron Technology ("Micron") NYSE: MU is a multinational company based in Boise, Idaho best known for producing many forms of semiconductor devices. This includes DRAM, SDRAM, flash memory, and CMOS image sensing chips. Most consumers are more familiar with its consumer brand Crucial Technology. Micron Technology is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.

History

Micron was founded in Boise, Idaho in 1978 by Ward Parkinson, Joe Parkinson, Dennis Wilson, and Doug Pitman. Startup funding was provided by local Idaho businessmen Tom Nicholson, Allen Noble, and Ron Yanke. Later it received funding from Idaho billionaire J. R. Simplot, whose fortune was made in the potato business. By 1981 a fab was completed and Micron was producing 64K DRAM chips. By focusing on being a low-cost producer, Micron survived numerous collapses in the DRAM market which caused many competitors to leave the industry. One of the most vicious was in 1985, when allegations of Japanese import dumping fueled a price collapse that caused DRAM inventor Intel to leave the market. Micron survived and eventually acquired the memory businesses of rivals Texas Instruments in 1998 and Toshiba in 2001. These acquisitions gave Micron an international presence with production facilities in Italy, Singapore, and Japan. Today Micron is the only DRAM manufacturer in the United States and its primary competitors include Infineon Technologies, Samsung, Hynix, and Elpida. In 1994, founder Joe Parkinson retired as CEO and was replaced with current CEO Steve Appleton.

In the early 1990s the company formed Micron Computers (later known as Micron Electronics) to manufacture PCs. The subsidiary was based in nearby Nampa, Idaho, and sold computers under the brand names Micron, and later, MicronPC & MicronPC.com.

Control of Micron Technology's Internet business, "Micron Internet Services" was transferred to Micron Electronics in 1999. Micron Electronics took on a new focus - bundling computers and Internet services. Controversial MEI CEO Joel Koecher purchased Internet firm HostPro, merging it in to the company.

In 2001, the computer-making and Internet business were split. The Internet assets were merged with Interland, and all ties to Micron Technology were severed. The computer-making operations were sold to Gores Technology Group, which later changed the brand name of the products to "MPC."