Qimonda

Qimonda AG

Type	AG
Industry	Semiconductors
Fate	Filed 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). no official figures updated since restructuring Oct 2008
Website	http://www.qimonda.com

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.

"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."