Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) has already had a handy turnaround, moving from being a DRAM-dependent commodity business into DRAM and flash. It has also participated in the consolidation phase of the sector. Now the company has a creative was of doing the same sort of move as a stock buyback and eliminating debt in what will sound a bit complicated if you are not a financial statement reader.

Micron has entered into privately negotiated transactions to repurchase convertible debt. Again, the effort lowers its debt and creates a scenario that prevent future dilution in shares. The company outlined its purchases specifically – repurchased $26 million of its 1.875% Convertible Senior Notes due 2031 for $65 million in cash, repurchased $100 million of its 2.375% Convertible Senior Notes due 2032 for $249 million, and repurchased $38 million of its 3.125% Convertible Senior Notes due 2032 for $93 million in cash.

After these purchases close, Micron will have the following convertible notes outstanding: $114 million of 2031B Notes, approximately $451 million of 2032C Notes, and $412 million 2032D Notes.

Micron also said that the company will record a charge in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 of approximately $10 million associated with the repurchases of these notes.

The long and short of the matter is that Micron reduced the dilutive effect of this portion of the convertible notes – approximately 10 million shares from its current dilutive share count based upon a $23 stock price. Micron also reduced the total amount of its debt by approximately $164 million. The company now claims that it has reduced the dilutive effects of convertible notes by approximately 52 million shares since last November, based on a $23 stock price.

If you look at the cumulative figure, this comes to almost $1.2 billion worth of stock that did not (or will not) dilute existing holders upon conversion and based upon current share prices. Micron’s market cap is $24.5 billion.

As of the end of November 2013, Micron had $3.65 billion in cash and cash equivalents, another $216 million in short-term securities, and another $1.03 billion in long-term securities. So another $407 million was spent here of close to $4.9 billion in liquidity. Micron’s long-term debt was $4.26 billion at the same time.

Maybe this is one of those instances where every little bit helps out. Micron shares were up 1% at $23.15 on a mixed day in Monday afternoon trading. Trading volume was also more than 21 million shares.

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