for bankruptcy in multiple jurisdictions founded 2006 headquarters munich germany key people kin wah loh ceo thomas j. seifert cfo coo products dram revenue euro 1.79 billion net sales fy 2008 number of employees around 13 500 at height 2007 . 1 no official figures updated since restructuring oct 2008 website http www.qimonda.com qimonda ag pronounced key mon da needs ipa was a memory company split out of infineon technologies itself a spun off business unit of siemens ag on 1 may 2006 to form at the time the second largest dram company worldwide according to the industry research firm gartner dataquest . it is now a patent licensing firm . headquartered in munich germany qimonda was a 300 mm manufacturer and was one of the top suppliers of dram products for the pc and server markets . infineon still controls a 77.5 % stake which it has written down 2008 . infineon was on record as having the aim of divesting itself of this stake with the purpose of becoming a minority stakeholder in 2009 . the company has issued 42 million adr shares each adr share representing one ordinary share in qimonda . at its height in 2007 qimonda employed approximately 13 500 personnel worldwide from whom 1 800 were employed in r & d with access to four 300 mm manufacturing sites and operating six major r & d facilities and included a chip packaging complex in vila do conde portugal and its lead r & d center in dresden germany in total covering three continents . during this time and on into september 2008 the price of dram continued to decline due to market oversupply resulting in significant corporate financial losses throughout 2008 . contents 1 meaning of qimonda 2 products and achievements 3 restructuring and decline 3.1 qimonda ag 3.2 qimonda north america 4 bankruptcy and litigation 4.1 qimonda ag 4.2 qimonda north america 5 legacy 6 alliances 7 production sites 8 notes 9 media 10 external links meaning of qimonda edit qimonda is an invented name which falls into the evocative class by branding agencies . these names are designed to evoke the qualities of the product or company rather than explain the actual goods or services the company supplies . along with the new name the company supplies an explanation of its meaning the name and brand identity of qimonda express the philosophy and personality of the company illustrating its vision and values . the word qimonda carries different meanings and allows associations in different languages . in chinese qi pronounced as ch ee stands for breathing and flowing energy while monda denotes world in latin based languages . qi when pronounced as a hard k suggests key to the world a positive connotation . products and achievements edit qimonda produced computing and consumer dram graphics ram mobile ram and flash memory . qimonda was primarily reliant on its deep trench technology in comparison to the stack capacitor systems of its rival manufacturers . deep trench has the benefit of a theoretically smaller footprint than its stack capacitor rival . with approximately one third lower power consumption due to lower leakage currents its natural advantages lie in mobile and laptop applications where power supply is a limiting factor . although offering significant advantages deep trench technology is technically difficult to manufacture and has led to slippage of qimonda s technology shrink roadmap in comparison to many of its rivals in recent years . in 2008 qimonda announced the development of its buried wordline technology . retaining many of the advantages of deep trench technology in theory it simplifies the manufacturing process and the time provided qimonda with a competitive technology shrink roadmap . qimonda was among the first dram suppliers to transition a substantial portion of the manufacturing to 300 mm technology . approximately 2 3 of the dram bits shipped were manufactured using 300 mm wafers by february 2007 . citation needed all 200 mm manufacturing ended by january 2009 . on september 18 2006 qimonda ag along with nanya technology corporation announced the successful qualification of the 75 nm dram trench technology . process structures of 75 nm further reduce chip size compared to the previous 90 nm technology thereby increasing potential chip output per wafer by about 40 percent . on november 1 2007 qimonda ag announced shipment of first gddr5 samples . on february 3 2009 qimonda ag announced the first 46 nm working production chips using its buried wordline technology fabricated at its dresden 300 mm plant . restructuring and decline edit qimonda ag edit in october 2008 major restructuring was announced to try to reduce losses and re align the company within the struggling dram sector . the restructuring saw the sale of qimonda s interest in its largest 300 mm manufacturing site inotera taiwan a joint venture between nanya technology and qimonda ag with qag owning 35.6 % at the time of sale to its rival micron technology for approximately 400m in cash . additionally ceo kin wah loh announced the closure by january 2009 of the company s single remaining 200 mm site as well as the adjoining 300 mm facility located in richmond virginia . other restructuring included the complete closure of the raleigh r & d facility and the termination of the back end component and module manufacturing site in dresden . altogether approximately 3000 employees would be made redundant by the changes excluding the micron buy out of inotera . with a historical emphasis on pc and server products the company then focused on products for graphics mobile and consumer applications using its power saving deep trench technology . on october 28 2008 qimonda ag achieved the lowest share price of usd 0.19 on nyse . on november 24 2008 qimonda ag achieved the lowest share price of usd 0.05 on nyse . the company continued to lose money and sought new investors to help keep the company afloat . the continuing fall in the spot price of commodity dram resulted in qimonda s 75 nm deep trench technology no longer being economically viable . the decision was taken in november 2008 to cease production of all commodity dram at their dresden and richmond 300 mm manufacturing sites . until this point richmond had predominantly produced graphics dram whilst dresden manufactured commodity dram . this left the dresden site s production capability severely under utilised although a significant proportion of the line utilization remained as technology development . all of the graphics manufacture was therefore transferred from richmond to dresden . qimonda s financial situation worsened during december and the company focused its efforts on securing additional financial support . on december 21 2008 qimonda ag issued a press release stating that they had secured a financial package of 325 million for the ramp up of buried wordline technology . the package comprised a 150 million loan from the german state of saxony 100 million from an unspecified leading financial institution in portugal and 75 million from infineon qimonda s parent company . in addition they were provided with the opportunity to draw on 280 million in the form of a state guarantee provided by the german federal government . in return qimonda agreed to commit to further development of their r & d and manufacturing sites in porto portugal and dresden and to quickly ramp up their 46 nm bwt to improve economies of scale at dresden . qimonda north america edit as a separate legal entity qimonda north america qna remained technically solvent . however without financial support from the parent company or access to revenue from sales which went to qimonda ag there were few options available to qna . on september 16 2008 qimonda north america announced that no funding would be issued for merit increases or promotions as part of the year end appraisal process in order to reduce costs . on october 13 2008 qimonda north america announced that it was closing its 200 mm wafer fabrication plant in richmond va resulting in the loss of 1200 jobs . on october 27 2008 qimonda north america announced that the approved incentive payments due to be paid to employees that month had been postponed until january 16 2009 for richmond employees and february 13 2009 for qna direct employees . qimonda north america announced mandatory unpaid leave in december 2008 for all employees at its richmond site amounting to a 10 % salary reduction for exempt staff and approximately 15 % reduction for non exempt employees . the mandatory unpaid leave was expected to last until the beginning of april 2009 . on february 3 2009 qimonda north america announced the closure by april of its remaining 300 mm wafer fabrication plant in richmond va. this is the first known closure of an operating 300 mm production fab . over the next two months 1500 employees would be laid off without severance pay . five hundred employees were made redundant within 24 hours of the announcement . a further 500 were to be made redundant over the coming month . the remainder were to be made redundant as the plant equipment is sold or mothballed by the beginning of april . bankruptcy and litigation edit qimonda ag edit qimonda ag and qimonda dresden ohg filed for insolvency protection on january 23 2009 similar to chapter 11 bankruptcy in us courts stating that the promised bailout package had not become available in time . 2 3 they requested the insolvency protection be backdated to january 1 2009 . however subsequent media reporting of the event suggests that the agreement to the package fell apart at the last minute and so was not available . it is reported that shortly prior to filing qimonda had requested a further 300 million on top of the already agreed 325 million . the backers then refused to meet the demands . 4 the company also published its yearly accounts which had been delayed several times from its normal release date at the end of october 2008 . this showed a drop in net sales to 1.79 billion down from the previous year s filing of 3.61 billion . the munich court appointed dr. michael jaff as administrator . dr. jaff is a lawyer who specialises in insolvency and restructuring . his most famous previous case was his handling of the collapse of the kirchmedia group . in a press release ceo kin wah loh stated german insolvency laws offers sic the opportunity to accelerate the restructuring process that has already been started in order to reposition the company back onto a solid base . under german law the operating costs including salaries are underwritten by the government for three months . this means that qimonda had until march 31 2009 to secure a solution to its current insolvency issues . in the days after the announcement general dram spot market prices increased by a peak of 26 % from their lowest recorded levels in january . however within a month of the announcement they had returned to their previous level . the dresden site plodded ahead with 46 nm buried wordline development and produced the first working samples at the beginning of february 2009 . it was hoped that the improved technological and cost advantages of the bwl technology would attract new investors or business partners before insolvency cover ends on march 31 2009 . on march 13 2009 according to eetimes qimonda in dresden ceased all dram production for the time being . we have not pulled the plug we just went to standby mode a spokesperson explained . the company together with the administrator had been searching for fresh capital but it was not possible to finalise a deal by the end of march which was the end of the insolvency period . the 300 mm dresden plant will be idled until such time as its future has been decided