Infineon Cleans House

SAN FRANCISCO - Infineon Technologies(IFX Quote - Cramer on IFX - Stock Picks) is washing it hands of various undesirable elements.

The German chipmaker promised Monday to reduce its majority stake in memory-chip maker Qimonda(QI Quote - Cramer on QI - Stock Picks) within the next two years, and in a separate announcement it said that it has booted its finance chief because of "irreconcilable differences."

The company did not elaborate on the disagreement that prompted its supervisory board to immediately terminate the contract of Rüdiger Günther, a mere three months after he took the job of chief financial officer and labor director.

A spokeswoman said she could not comment on whether the differences were related to business issues or were of a personal nature.

Günther joined Infineon's management board in April and was appointed CFO in May, succeeding Peter Fischl, who retired that month. Infineon said Monday that Fischl will return to the finance role temporarily.

Shares of Infineon were off 23 cents, or 1.4%, at $15.68 in midday trading Monday.

Infineon also moved ahead with plans to unload the volatile DRAM memory business, Qimonda, from its books. Infineon spun off its memory business in 2006, in order to focus on providing analog and mixed-signal logic chips to the automotive, industrial and communications markets. But Infineon still has an 86% stake in Qimonda.

That stake has been a drag Infineon's financial results, as DRAM prices have fallen through the floor.

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