BOISE, Idaho -- Micron Electronics Inc. today (March 23) announced it is exiting the PC business and converting itself into a pure-play Web-hosting company.
Micron Electronics has a non-binding letter of intent to sell its PC operation to an unidentified technology-equity investment firm, said Joel Kocher, chairman and chief executive officer of the company.
As part of the series of transaction, Micron Electronics will sell its DRAM repair operation, called SpecTek, to Micron Technology Inc., the Boise memory maker that holds a major stake in the company. Micron Technology will also buy certain real estate and intellectual property of the PC-Web hosting affiliate. The result of these financial deals will net Micron Electronics $42 million.
At the same time, Micron Electronics will acquire Interland Inc., a Web-hosting firm, in a $180 million stock exchange and rename the merged company as Interland. Micron will fold its own HostPro Web-based service into the new firm.
After the stock swap, Micron Electronics stockholders will have a 70% share and Interland shareholders a 30% interest in the new company.
Concurrently, Micron Electronics today reported a net loss of $169 million in the quarter, ended March 1, compared with a net profit of $5.7 million for the same quarter a year ago. Sales totaled $14.7 million, up from $6.6 million for the year-ago period. The loss from continuing operations--excluding the discontinued PC business--for the quarter were $9.7 million.
