Computer Memory Producer Bets it all on Growth Rather than Profits
Watch the video with Andrew Stotz or read a summary of the World Class Benchmarking on Macronix International Company Limited.
Background
Established in 1989, Taiwan-based Macronix International Company Limited designs and produces several types of non-volatile memory, such as NOR flash, ROM and NAND flash.
Those products are commonly used in automotive, industrial and communications industries, where they serve as parts of advanced technological devices.
Macronix experienced profitability issues for several years while it spent liberally on growth, but profits have finally begun to reward the investment in 2017. The stock price has rallied this year as well.
Business Description
Macronix is a major designer, producer and supplier in the non-volatile memory market. Its products portfolio includes several types of flash memory used in automotive, industrial and communications industries.
NOR flash—mostly used in devices that need very fast memory access, such as mobile phones and smartphones—makes up 58% of revenue. It has faster read speed than NAND memory.
ROM products, which generated 20% of the revenue, are used in game cartridges, slot machines, toys and learning devices.
NAND flash products are mainly used in MP3 players, digital cameras, and USB storage devices. This memory is more suitable for file storage as it has higher storage capacity and lower cost per bit versus NOR.
Foundry business group is engaged in wafer design and manufacturing. It offers Integrated Circuit (IC) design companies and Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM) companies with integrated wafer foundry services, such as development of LCD/LED drivers and power management.
Leadership
Wu Miin-chyou is the founder of Macronix and has been the chairman since March 2005.
Prior to founding Macronix, Mr. Wu had been with Intel Corp., VLSI Technology Inc. and Rockwell International. He has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry.
Mr. Wu received a Master’s degree in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, USA.
Lu Chih-yuan has been the President of Macronix since July 2007. Before his time at Macronix, he had been the President of Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp., a Professor in National Chiao Tung University, and a researcher at AT&T Bell Labs.
He was one of the leaders of the project that successfully developed Taiwan’s first 8-inch high density DRAM/SRAM manufacturing technology.
Mr. Lu received a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University, USA.
World Class Benchmarking
Profitable Growth improved to #7 among large information technology companies in the past 12 months.
Profitability has improved recently but still remains poor. Growth, on the other hand, maintained its #2 ranking for the third straight year.
Asset utilization and Profit margin improved to #7 from recently having been in the red.
Sales growth maintained its top 3 rank, while Margin change has been the best since 2015.
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