August 6, 2007 – Infineon Technologies says it plans to shave its stake in former memory chipmaking unit Qimonda AG from current 86% to less than 50% within two years through secondary offerings “and other capital markets measures,” in order to strengthen both companies and accommodate the interests of shareholders, according to the company.

Most of the German chipmaker’s 1Q07 profit of 120M euros (US ~$155M) came from its stake in Qimonda, which posted a 177M euro (US ~$229M) gain. But showing the volatility of the memory market that spurred the division sell-off in the first place, Infineon saw its losses widen in its most recent quarter (fiscal 3Q07) to 197M euros (US $270M), mainly because of losses at Qimonda (218M euro/$299M).

“Carving-out and listing our memory business last year effectively created two focused companies, each with a well-defined strategy and clear prospects,” said Wolfgang Ziebart, Infineon president/CEO, in a statement, noting that the new plan gives the company “another option to reduce our stake” and increase flexibility for speeding up that reduction.

Separately, Infineon also confirmed it has severed ties with CFO Ruediger Guenther “due to irreconcilable differences”; he will be replaced by Peter Fischl, who retired in May.