Infineon Sells Fiber Optics Plant to Siemens

MUNICH, Germany, Nov. 14 -- After the sale of a significant part of its fiber optics group in January, semiconductor chip maker Infineon Technologies AG announced today that it is selling its most significant remaining fiber-optic asset -- a manufacturing facility in Trutnov, Czech Republic -- to automotive supplier Siemens VDO for an undisclosed amount.

Siemens VDO has agreed to take over Infineon's plant in Trutnov as of July 1, 2006. Until then, the two companies plan to work in parallel at the Trutnov site, enabling Siemens VDO to ramp up its production of electric motor drives while also allowing Infineon to continue fulfilling customer orders, according to Infineon. Siemens VDO says it intends to recruit its personnel from among the current Infineon work force of 500 in Trutnov.

Because of operating losses in the fiber optics business, Infineon also announced that it is discontinuing its line of Paroli parallel optical link products for datacom and telecom applications, and that it is currently fulfilling its last orders from customers.

Infineon also announced today that it sold, for an undisclosed amount, its fiber-optics bidirectional components business to EZConn Corp. of Tiawan in August. The components are used for FTTx (fiber to the x) applications. Under the agreement, EZconn acquired all assets and intellectual property needed to make the FTTx products. The deal included Infineon's wafer-level micromodule processes, used in optical subassembly manufacturing. According to EZconn, it will open a design and marketing center in Berlin, Germany, offering key employees of Infineon new jobs to continue serving established and new customers.

In January 2005, Infineon sold its fiber optics transceiver business to fiber-optic subsystems maker Finisar Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif. Soon thereafter, the plastic optical fiber business was reorganized to become part of Infineon's automotive, industrial and multi-market business group.

For more information, visit: www.infineon.com