Micron board member says Appleton should be replaced

BOISE — Steve Appleton needs to be replaced as chairman of computer memory chip maker Micron Technology Inc., one of the company's six other board members says.

Gordon Smith told the Idaho Statesman last week that Appleton is "not a moneymaker," failed to diversify the company, and should not have simultaneously held Micron's top three jobs of chief executive officer, chairman and president. Appleton last month gave up his position as president.

Smith joined the board in 1990 when he was an executive at the J.R. Simplot Co., an agribusiness conglomerate that sells potatoes to fast food restaurants worldwide. Smith is now CEO of GC Smith LLC, the company that owns his ranch operations near Baker City, Ore.

He said he will ask the board at its September meeting to replace Appleton but doubts he can find enough votes on the board to make that happen.

Micron spokesman Dan Francisco said Appleton, 47, had no comment concerning Smith's remarks. But the company on Friday released a statement on behalf of Robert E. Switz, chairman of the governance committee of its board of directors.

"The board is actively engaged in reviewing on an ongoing basis the company's performance and that of its management team," Switz said. "Chairman and CEO Steve Appleton is driving the company toward a new business structure in an increasingly complex and globally competitive marketplace. The board believes this strategy will achieve long term success and supports Steve's leadership in accomplishing our objectives."

After graduating with a degree in business administration, Appleton went to work in 1983 at Micron, a high-tech startup here. He earned $4.46 an hour working the graveyard shift on the chip fabrication line. Appleton was promoted 11 times, eventually becoming president in 1991 and CEO in 1994.

But in 2006 Forbes magazine said Appleton was the worst performing boss in America, based on Appleton's average compensation of $7.8 million annually over a six-year period at the same time the company's stock price was plummeting.

Micron reported loses of $225 million in the third quarter that ended May 31 as prices for its D-RAM chips and flash memory products plunged amid a global glut. As a result, the company has so far laid off 875 people, according to a letter it sent last week to the state. The company employed about 11,000 workers in Idaho before the layoffs and about 22,000 around the world, including in Utah, as well as Singapore, China and Italy.