Spansion on August 6 filed three complaints against Samsung, alleging patent violations in a broad range of Samsung flash memory products that go into devices like tablets and smartphones. A Spansion spokesman declined to comment on which products those may be. However, Apple's iPad and iPhone 4 use Samsung flash memory.

Spansion stayed in Chapter 11 four plus months longer and lost more market share than planned. On the positive side, business is up for Spansion and its rivals.

Spansion has received authorization to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company anticipates that trading will begin on or about June 23, 2010.

Spansion CEO John Kispert also said he could not confirm a recent Nikkei report indicating Texas Instruments was in final talks to buy two plants owned by Spansion Japan, as Spansion Japan is now a separate entity from Spansion.

Silver Lake Sumeru, the middle market investment group of Silver Lake, has announced that it recently closed on an investment in Spansion. Spansion has successfully emerged from bankruptcy.

Spansion has reported net profits of US$3.7 million for the first quarter, a return to profitability from net losses of US$512.6 million in the same quarter of 2009.

Spansion has received approval and confirmation of its plan of reorganization from the US Bankruptcy Court, which clears the way for Spansion's emergence from Chapter 11.

"Asia is a very strategic region for Spansion in the fast growing embedded electronics markets," said John Kispert, president and CEO of Spansion. "With the addition of SL Chan, we have strengthened our team with a veteran sales and marketing executive who will be a key asset for the company's new business strategy..."

Elpida Memory has said it bought flash-chip technology assets from Spansion to develop semiconductors for use in mobile phones.

Spansion has reported net sales of US$307.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2009, which marked its second consecutive profitable quarter with net income on a US GAAP basis of US$4.3 million.

Flash memory vendor Spansion Inc. Thursday (Dec. 31) reported its first quarterly profit since going public—despite declining sales—and said it plans to emerge from bankruptcy early in 2010.

Spansion has announced its MirrorBit flash memory is now available as a verified configuration solution for the new Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA family.

A Spansion spokesperson said through a prepared statement that a "small restructuring" took place at Spansion on October 26. The layoff was "necessary to better prioritize and align the company's resources with its business goals and emergence from Chapter 11," according to the statement.

NOR flash supplier Spansion has put its 300mm fab up for sale, according to sources at the ISMI Symposium here.

In addition to a DRAM recovery, the NOR and NAND flash memory market has been extremely active. The volume of requests for Spansion and Numonyx flash memory has tripled over the last two months.

PTI will provide final manufacturing services to Spansion at the Suzhou facility pursuant to a Supply Agreement between Spansion LLC and PTI. "We expect an uninterrupted supply of products to our customers after the transfer of ownership of the Suzhou facility...

The latest rumor: Japan's Elpida Memory is looking to buy Spansion's wireless chip unit for US$200-300 million. A spokeswoman from Elpida declined to comment. Spansion did not respond to e-mails.

Spansion and Samsung Electronics are set to resume their legal dispute after a bankruptcy judge rejected a $70 million patent settlement between the two companies.

Tessera Technologies has said that it won a patent dispute over small-format semiconductor packaging products, with the International Trade Commission issuing a cease-and-desist order against rivals Motorola, Qualcomm, Freescale Semiconductor and Spansion.

Spansion said Friday that it received an additional delist warning from Nasdaq.

There's a glimmer of hope for the thousands of Spansion employees outraged at their sudden firing last week. Spansion CEO John Kispert has issued a statement through a spokesman declaring the company would try to get employees the money they are owed through a bankruptcy court.

The company that was at one time the world's principal provider of NOR flash memory -- the more non-volatile variety -- had its own plans to go "asset light," to use a now familiar phrase, and to concentrate on licensing its intellectual property to companies with the muscle to do the heavy lifting. It sounds like a plan AMD just executed last month. As it turns out, Spansion had also been planning to license others to produce its designs.

While Spansion Inc. was cutting 3,000 jobs on Monday, the company's board was restoring full pay to its top executives. The company had imposed a 10% pay cut in October for top executives. But in a securities filing Tuesday, Spansion said it was returning the executives and other key employees to full pay as part of an "employee retention program."

Numonyx has taped out a 1Gbit phase change memory, according to company CTO Ed Doller. "We've taped out a 1Gb phase change device on 45nm", said Doller. "Our view is that it's scalable for NOR to the 32nm node".

Spansion is in the midst of a crisis. Asked if Spansion would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US as some have speculated, a spokeswoman for the company said: "Legally, this filing (in Japan) does not automatically require a filing in the US Management is committed to working diligently with outside advisors to help guide the company through the restructuring process. We can't comment on speculation beyond (the Japan) announcement."

Spansion's president and chief executive, Bertrand Cambou, has resigned as the chip company, struggling with declining revenue, looks for a suitor.

Spansion, the NOR flash manufacturer which bought Israel NROM company Saifun last year, has hired Barclay's Capital to investigate ways of selling itself to another company, or entering a partnership with another company.

Loss making NOR flash memory market leader, Spansion is facing growing concerns over its liquidity status with credit ratings specialist, Fitch Ratings, lowering its view on approximately US$1.3 billion of debt to a 'negative' outlook. Fitch noted that Spansion's total debts were US$1.6 billion.

Spansion, the Sunnyvale flash-memory maker, chose to borrow US$74.8 million of the US$85 million available to it under an agreement with UBS, the Swiss investment banker that holds auction-rate securities that were worth US$121.9 million when Spansion first bought them. The investment has a current estimated market value of US$107.4 million, according to a filing Spansion made Monday.

As downward revisions of December quarter guidances flow as steadily as pink slips this month, reports are swirling of company-enacted manufacturing plant shutdowns in what seems to be a heavy trend compared to previous years. Samsung, Spansion, TI, and TSMC are among those reportedly shutting down manufacturing sites at the end of the year for up to three weeks. Such action is nothing new...

Spansion said in a statement that the decision is consistent with other chip manufacturers in the industry that are also suffering from decreased demand for flash memory.

The ruling is a victory for defendants Qualcomm, Motorola, Spansion, STMicroelectronics NV, Freescale Semiconductor and ATI Technologies, a company purchased in 2006 by Advanced Micro Devices. The commission's administrative law judge found that the two Tessera patents were valid, but weren't infringed by the defendants. "It's a great result," said Alex Rogers, Qualcomm's senior vice president and legal counsel.

Spansion, one of the world's largest makers of flash memory chips, on Monday offered a grim sales outlook for the current quarter, citing a slowdown in demand as customers shut down factories. Spansion also said it is cutting cost of goods sold by about 25 percent and cutting operating expenses.

Japan's Toshiba is in talks to buy US chip maker Spansion, two industry sources said, in the latest sign of pressure for consolidation in the struggling memory sector. However, Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Ohmori said his company was not in talks to buy Spansion, and was also not considering such a move.