BOISE -- After 11 straight quarterly losses, does one profitable quarter spell success for Micron? Even the CEO said that wasn’t the case just yet.
This profitable quarter is certainly good news, but Appleton said it won't spark an immediate hiring frenzy.
Making money by making memory for the first time in three years, Micron is proudly reporting a profit of more than $200 million in its first quarter. But what does that mean for those at the company headquarters?
"The first thing that profitability does for Micron is save the jobs that we currently have,” Appleton said. “And that, as we said all along, was an objective of ours to save as many jobs as we could and we think we're doing that."
While thousands of jobs were saved in Boise, thousands were also lost in order to help Micron survive.
"The reality for the Treasure Valley is that, in the near future, we're not going to employ the quantity of people that we did before,” Appleton said. “Many people know in Idaho we peaked somewhere around 12,000 people and we have somewhere in the neighborhood of half that today. Although we're working on products today we believe will lead to growth, it won't be at that magnitude."
That growth may also have a green hue to it. Appleton says the local campus has state of the art facilities useful in the development of solar and LED products. Earth friendly energy alternatives that could generate green for one of Idaho's largest employers.
"Again, one quarter you can't claim victory, but if you look at the metrics now about Micron versus our competition, if you look at the quarter we just reported, if you look at all the things we've done to change the business model of the company so we didn't file bankruptcy like others...I guess, I think there should be a sense of thinking about Micron in a much more positive light,” Appleton said. “And then I hope a lot of people in the community would also give credit for the people of Micron for surviving a horrendous period of time and emerging to a point where it's apparent we're a leader in the industry.”
Appleton says the LED and solar technologies they’re working on could utilize facilities currently not being used at the Boise campus, those vacated during the recent restructuring.
One year ago, Micron's stock was hovering in the $2 range. Wednesday, it closed at $9.99 per share.
