REDMOND, Wash., May 15, 2002 — Microsoft Corp., along with its manufacturing partner Flextronics Corp., today announced plans to establish a manufacturing and assembly operation for the Xbox (TM) video game system in China later this year. The companies also stated that the console manufacturing operation in Hungary would be relocated to Doumen, China. In addition to the Xbox operations at Flextronics’ Guadalajara, Mexico, facility and the new operations in China, Microsoft will add another facility in Asia in the future.
“The Doumen facility will enable Flextronics to manufacture Xbox consoles under ideal production circumstances,” said Todd Holmdahl, general manager of Xbox Hardware at Microsoft. “It is a large facility with a strong infrastructure and flexible production capacity that will result in significant cost efficiencies.”
According to Holmdahl, the cost savings associated with the Doumen facility are derived principally from reduced overhead costs and the facility’s location in the same region in which many of the Xbox components are manufactured. “Flextronics has been an excellent partner and has worked closely with us to meet production targets while keeping quality high and costs down,” Holmdahl said. “We are extremely satisfied with our relationship with Flextronics.”
Michael Marks, chairman and CEO of Flextronics, said, “Our manufacturing facilities in the Far East are some of the best operations anywhere in the world, and we are confident that our industrial park in China will meet the production demands of Xbox moving forward. Further, we are confident that through the local supply base and our substantial buying power we can help Microsoft reduce product costs and assist in meeting the growing worldwide demand for Xbox.”
In its Doumen facility, Flextronics will provide manufacturing services for Xbox that include printed circuit board fabrication, injection molding, sheet-metal stamping, circuit board assembly, final box build and testing.
About Xbox
Xbox ( http://www.xbox.com/ ) is Microsoft’s future-generation video game system that delivers the most powerful games experiences ever. Xbox empowers game artists by giving them the technology to fulfill their creative visions as never before, creating games that blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Xbox is now available in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia.
About Flextronics
Headquartered in Singapore, Flextronics is the leading Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider focused on delivering operational services to technology companies. With fiscal year 2002 revenues of USD$13.1 billion and approximately 70,000 employees, Flextronics is a major global operating company with design, engineering, manufacturing and logistics operations in 28 countries and four continents. This global presence allows for manufacturing excellence through a network of facilities situated in key markets and geographies that in turn provide its customers with the resources, technology and capacity to optimize their operations. Flextronics’ ability to provide end-to-end operational services that include innovative product design, test solutions, manufacturing, IT expertise and logistics has established the Company as the leading EMS provider. For further information, please visit www.flextronics.com .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft and Xbox are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft®
Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team for additional assistance.
