What is "qimonda"

Qimonda AG (pronounced "key-MON-da") 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.