Ericsson purchase by Siemens revitalizes local workforce
By SHERRY HEMINGWAY
Pinnacle Correspondent
A business deal between two major multi-national companies
– Sweden’s Ericsson and Germany’s Siemens – has led to the
revitalization of a Morgan Hill business that had hit hard
times.
Ericsson purchase by Siemens revitalizes local workforce
By SHERRY HEMINGWAY
Pinnacle Correspondent
A business deal between two major multi-national companies – Sweden’s Ericsson and Germany’s Siemens – has led to the revitalization of a Morgan Hill business that had hit hard times.
A new sign over the former offices of Ericsson Microelectronics in Morgan Hill now says “Infineon Technologies,” reflecting its sale by Ericsson and purchase by a spin-off of Siemens.
“The parking lot is full and the mood is positive,” said Vice President and General Manager Tom Moller, who continues to lead the operation he helped locate in Morgan Hill in 1991.
“It is all good news,” said Moller. “We were deeply affected by the telecommunications crash – business has been terrible – but now we have moved over and business has picked up.”
A few years ago, Morgan Hill employees numbered 430, but declined to 161 by Sept. 9 when the sale was final.
“We have the switching over, which has its headaches and challenges, but we are ramping up and hiring – and that is a great feeling,” said Moller.
The general manager said that, as Infineon, the employee count has climbed back up to 200 and “we are adding people through a contract agency – at least until we have more confidence in the current upswing.”
“We are now working three shifts, and we were down to one,” said Moller. “Starting Monday we will be working 24 hours a day.”
“When we were Ericsson, the core business was providing big wireless networks for entire countries. Locally, we made an important part, but we were way down on the food chain,” said Moller. “The core product of Siemens is microelectronics, so now we are a core product. It was a smart move for both companies. It is a much better fit and we are getting more funding to be successful.”
Moller said the business hasn’t changed; they still build very specialized high power radio frequency components used in cellular radio and cellular infrastructure. “We provide the part that amplifies the radio signal to cell phones work,” said Moller.
In 2001, the company was the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year.
The 58,000 sq. ft. development and assembly factory is at 18275 Serene Dr. in the Morgan Hill Ranch business park.
Infineon is one of the world’s top ten semiconductor companies whose focus is in the fields of communications, automotive electronics and memory products. It has a market capitalization of $6.5 billion and is traded under the symbol IFX on the New York and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges. There are approximately 33,000 employees worldwide.
