Credit crunch grabs Intel, ST Micro by the nadgers

IT MAY STILL BE Yuletide here in Blightyland for a whole week or so yet, but the wheels of commerce are already grinding, across the ocean blue.

And now Intel and ST Micro have been forced to postpone their memory joint venture Numonyx, which they’d hoped to finalise by the end of this year, because there’s not as much money around as there was before the sub-prime scandal hit the virtual fans.

The firms, with the assistance of private equity firm Francisco Partners, expect to raise the oof for the NOR flash memory firm by the end of March next year.

Instead of the $1.3 billion loan they’d been anticipating, they’ll get half of that plus a $100 million credit facility – but they’re still going to push ahead, said ST Micro.

In a statement, ST Micro said Francisco will now bung $150 million for a 6.3 share in the Numonyx pot. ST Micro will have 48.5 per cent of the shares while Francisco P will have 6.3 per cent. Intel will hold the remaining shares.

ST Micro said Numonyx will be the industry’s largest supplier of NOR flash with a “substantial” patent portfolio. And they will “hit the ground running” when the firm starts.

Britain might hit the ground running after the trains start running again, later this week, and after a long weekend followed by the peculiarly proto-British festival called "hogmanay", with people straggling back to work on Wednesday next week, if the fates so decree.

By then, the fabled "Christmas Turkeys" consumed in vast numbers by non-vegetarians in Blightyland will be just a distant burp in time. µ