Toshiba Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc. today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding, the key points of which include the sale of the assets of Toshiba's wholly-owned Dominion Semiconductor, L.L.C., located in Manassas, Virginia, to Micron and the withdrawal by Toshiba from the commodity DRAM business.

Toshiba will cease its involvement in the commodity DRAM business to focus resources on high value-added memories, including flash and application-specific memories. The two companies have agreed to proactively discuss future collaboration in the development and sales of non-commodity and high-value-added DRAMs.

Mr. Takeshi Nakagawa, president and CEO of Toshiba's Semiconductor Company, said: "We have decided to withdraw from commodity DRAM business, which means that Micron's business strategy fits ours. This, alongside respect for one another's technological capabilities, allowed us to quickly close a deal, even though we had never worked with one another before. Negotiations took place in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect, which, I am sure, will make it possible for us to strengthen our relationship. I look forward to a future opportunity to discuss business collaboration."

Mr. Steve Appleton, CEO and Chairman of Micron Technology, Inc said, "This transaction clearly demonstrates Micron's commitment to further strengthen its memory business in the face of a significant industry downturn. Similar to prior transactions, we believe this acquisition will better position Micron to more cost-efficiently produce our products and to establish new customer relationships throughout the world. We look forward to developing a closer relationship with Toshiba."