Lexar just got the ax, but the memory card brand could still be bought out

The future of a popular memory card brand isn’t so looking good. On Monday, parent company Micron announced the decision to discontinue the Lexar brand, which includes memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, and storage drives. While Micron is discontinuing the Lexar brand, it is also “exploring opportunities to sell all or part of the Lexar business,” according to the announcement.

Jay Hawkins, Micron’s vice president for the consumer products group, said the decision reflects the company’s focus on markets and channels with higher value. According to the company, Micron has the broadest memory solutions portfolio in the industry and is one of the largest memory manufacturers in the world. Along with memory cards, the semiconductor company also develops a variety of computer and mobile memory systems, as well as solid-state storage hard drives.

“I’d like to thank our team members and partners for their contributions to the Lexar business. As difficult as this decision is, the company is making this adjustment in its business to ensure it continues to be well-positioned for the future,” Hawkins wrote.

According to the latest financial reports for the second quarter of the 2017 fiscal year, Micron reported revenues that were 17 percent higher than the first quarter and 58 percent higher than the same time period last year. The growth, however, was largely attributed to a growing demand for NAND and DRAM memory. At the end of 2016, the company reported growth in computing and networking and mobile, as well as seeing record sales for automative as more vehicles incorporate tech that requires embedded memory.

The report for the end of 2016 indicated that memory cards, USB, and other consumer components made up about half of the company’s income categorized as trade nonvolatile, which was 31 percent of the company’s total revenue. In the second quarter of 2017, that number dropped to 40 percent.

The Lexar brand has been around for over 20 years, producing a variety of both budget and high-speed memory cards, along with USB drives and card readers. While brand loyalty isn’t as dominant in memory cards as other photo gear, Lexar is one of the more well-known names in the category alongside SanDisk.

While Lexar may yet be picked up by another company, Micron says they will also continue to offer support to current customers.