by Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

Infineon Technologies, headquartered in Munich, Germany, and one of Europe’s largest technology companies, has become a Founding Sponsor of SiliconValleyWatcher.

Infineon's US operations are headquartered in San Jose, where it also has a large research and development center. It employs about 3,000 people in the US.

I used to sometimes write stories about Infineon when I worked at the Financial Times; however, most of our coverage of the company was through our correspondents in Germany.

I would occassionally meet with Infineon Systems former chief executive, Dr. Ulrich Schumacher, when he was in town. He would sometimes hold board meetings in Sonoma. "I have to get these guys out of Munich, and remind them we are a global company," he told me on one occasion.

Usually my colleague, Helene Laube, Silicon Valley correspondent for the FT’s sister publication Financial Times Deutschland, would join me in the interviews.

Dr. Schumacher was always an interesting interview. He was a controversial figure in Germany because of his outspoken views on Germany’s restrictive business climate. He was Siemen’s youngest-ever director, and headed the spin-off of Infineon Systems from out of Siemens in April, 1999.

He then worked diligently to reduce Siemen's large stake in the company, which acted as an overhang, weighing on the stock price. He was replaced as CEO about a year ago by Infineon’s board of directors, after he’d reportedly upset the trade unions and others.

Infineon is mostly known in the US for its memory chips. This is a tough market. The margins on memory chips have been meager for many years; and during some periods, the margins can be negative because of the large fixed costs in running large chip fabs.

Infineon also makes a broad range of chips for use in cars—a market that offers improved margins compared with memory chips, and is important in improving fuel efficiency and safety of automobiles. It is the largest supplier of chips to Europe’s carmakers; but in the US it is in second place to Motorola.

In mid-2002, Infineon became the sponsor of what was known as Sear’s Point Raceway in Sonoma, now Infineon Raceway. This ten-year deal is designed to raise awareness of the company in US automotive markets.

Mario Andretti, the world’s most accomplished race car driver, is a spokesman for Infineon and is featured at a well-attended media and analyst day that is held in the summer at Infineon Raceway. Those who are brave enough can ride next to Mario as he does “hot laps” in a racing Porsche through one of the most challenging race tracks in the US. Don’t eat lunch is my advice.

At the most recent media and analyst day in 2004, Nathan Brookwood, microprocessor analyst at Insight 64, told me he “broke” Mario’s car. I said, "What do you mean you broke it?" He said a wheel came off as he rode with Mario, “we took a bend, and I saw the wheel fly off in front of us.” Nobody was hurt thanks to Mario’s formidable driving skills.

Infineon, as with Tibco, approached SiliconValleyWatcher wanting to become a sponsor. It had heard about the project through industry “buzz” in the summer of 2004, and has kept a close eye on our progress. The company is interested in media technologies such as blogging and wikis and how they could be used within its business.

Here are some company facts and figures from its website.

Infineon Technologies was founded in April 1999, when the semiconductor operations of parent company, Siemens AG, were spun off to form a separate legal entity. Today, Infineon has about 36,000 employees worldwide, 7,300 of them involved in research and development. Owing to the innovative strength and creativity of its employees, Infineon produces approximately 2,800 inventions each year and registers some 1,600 of them for patents. This amounts to seven inventions per day. In terms of number of registered patents, Infineon thus ranks number three in Germany, after Siemens and Bosch.

News story: Sears Point track becomes Infineon Raceway

http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/thatsracin/archives/3524443.htm

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