Micron Technology’s annual meeting Thursday drew about 50 shareholders, says Statesman business reporter Brad Talbutt, who covered the meeting and Chairman Steve Appleton’s news conference afterward.

KIVI-TV (Channel 6) had reported Wednesday night that there might be fireworks as “angry investors … let loose on management.” The story quoted Bob Coleman, identified as a Treasure Valley financial analyst, saying Micron might want to get out of the chip-making business and do something else. Coleman, referring to Appleton, said, “I’m sure a lot of people would say maybe he should tender his resignation right there, because the track record has been very, very poor.”

No fireworks materialized. As annual meetings go, this one was like most, with few surprises. To be sure, you can buy Micron stock today for less than the cost of a Big Mac, but Brad told me there was just one shareholder question, and it generated no news.

The big question for Treasure Valley residents remains Micron’s future in Boise. With two big layoffs in the past year and a half, with two years of deep losses, with no turnaround for the memory-chip market in sight, and with a recession likely for the next year, how long can Micron hang on?

We hear pessimistic predictions from employees (none of whom will go on the record) that manufacturing lines won’t survive much longer. The company pledges to keep R&D here in Boise, and that’s important — R&D means high-paying jobs that, combined with marketing, administration and other jobs, would still likely mean 5,000 or so jobs in Boise even if all manufacturing here ended. And Appleton said again Thursday that the aging 200 mm production lines in Boise are still churning out profitable specialty memory products. Based on company comments, these lines seem likely to stay in production for a couple of years. Beyond that, no one is saying.