Lexar shareholders approve merger with Micron

Despite opposition from billionaire investor Carl Icahn, shareholders of Lexar Media agreed to a deal to be bought out by Micron Technology, turning the giant memory chip maker into a stronger competitor in the NAND flash memory business.

The deal was approved by more than the required 50 percent of shareholders and will close as soon as possible, Lexar said in a statement Friday. Lexar shareholders will swap each one of their shares for 0.5925 of Micron common stock

The original deal between the two companies faced opposition from the time it was announced in March by a powerful group of shareholders led by Icahn. He personally controlled 7.47 percent of the voting shares in Lexar as of the Friday vote, but it’s unclear which way he voted on the issue.

NAND, which means “not and,” is a kind of memory chip that has gained popularity because it can hold a huge amount of data and retain it even after power has been shut off, making it the ideal chip for storing songs, pictures and other data in digital cameras, mobile phones, digital music players, and other devices. The market for the chips is currently dominated by Toshiba and Samsung Electronics.

The deal gives Micron a number of fundamental NAND flash memory patents owned by Lexar, strengthening its turn into the flash business. Micron and Intel established a joint venture flash memory company last year, IM Flash Technologies, to grab a slice of the NAND flash business, the fastest growing segment of the chip industry.