San Jose, CA – Atmel Corp. has closed its manufacturing facility in Irving, TX, effective immediately.

The facility, purchased in 2000 from Hitachi, employed approximately 300 people at the time of its closure. The move allows Atmel to consolidate its manufacturing activity and reduce costs significantly.

Atmel will place the facility up for sale.

George Perlegos, Atmel’s CEO, stated, “While we regret the necessity to close our Irving facility, we are committed to completing our restructuring program, which includes a reduction in manufacturing expenses. In the two years we have owned the facility, we put in place equipment and people to support an increase in customer demand and advanced cost-effective technology. However, given the current business environment, combined with today’s advanced 0.18- and 0.13-micron processes we simply do not need as many wafers to manufacture the same number of semiconductor chips. Therefore, even with the recovering demand that we expect, our remaining facilities will serve us well. Importantly, reducing expenses now will speed our return to profitability. And we will still be well positioned with capacity to support the upturn when it arrives.”

The plant closure is expected to save Atmel approximately $9 million/quarter in on-going expenses, and potentially an additional $6 million/quarter in future depreciation.