Jun. 3--Micron Technology has agreed to sell a majority interest in its imaging business to two private equity firms.

Micron will retain a 35 percent stake in Aptina Imaging, while Riverwood Capital and TPG Capital will control the rest. Riverwood has offices in Menlo Park, Calif., and New York City. TPG is based in Texas.

The sale is expected to be completed in the next 60 days, after which Micron will continue to provide manufacturing and services for Aptina, according to a news release.

Aptina makes CMOS image sensors for digital cameras mobile phones, laptop computers and other applications, and is based in California.

The terms of the deal weren't revealed, but Micron will take a loss of approximately $100 million in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year in connection with the sale, the release said.

"Launching Aptina as an independent business entity enables Micron and Aptina to focus on their respective core businesses while continuing to maintain a strong relationship with Micron's manufacturing and process development expertise and Aptina's product and market expertise," said Steve Appleton, Micron chairman and chief executive officer. "Additionally, this transaction enables Micron to maintain a strategic investment in a leading company in the imaging industry."

Micron invested in image sensing in hopes of diversifying its products and mitigating the ups and downs of the global semiconductor business.

In the fiscal year ending August 2008, Aptina had revenue of approximately $650 million.

But when Micron began separating Aptina into a separate company last spring, analysts suggested the image sensor business wasn't creating enough revenue and was detracting from Micron's core dynamic random-access memory and flash memory products.

Last week Micron said it had agreed to buy Displaytech inc., a Colorado company that designs electronic displays for cell phones and digital cameras.

Micron's stock closed at $5.07, down 4.7 percent.

Brad Talbutt: 672-6737

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