Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc and US-based Micron Technology Inc said yesterday they had begun merger talks, confirming days of market speculation.
Elpida, the world’s third-largest maker of DRAM chips, said in a statement it was beginning negotiations with Micron over the company’s financial problems.
“Such decision has been made under the Tokyo District Court approval on May 10, 2012, allowing Elpida’s trustees to enter into negotiation of an agreement with Micron,” Elpida said in an English-language statement.
The Japanese chipmaker filed for bankruptcy protection with the Tokyo court under the Corporate Reorganization Act on Feb. 27, the biggest corporate failure in Japanese manufacturing history, as it reported ¥448 billion (US$5.62 billion) of liabilities as of the end of February.
Micron, the world’s fourth-largest DRAM chipmaker, confirmed in a separate statement that it was engaged in discussions with Elpida’s trustees to acquire the Japanese firm’s business, following an intense bidding process to support Elpida during its corporate restructuring.
If Micron’s acquisition of Elpida goes through, the US company is expected to overtake South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor Inc as the world’s second-largest DRAM chipmaker after Samsung Electronics Co, DRAMexchange, a research division of Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技), said in a report on Wednesday.
DRAMexchange
In addition, an oligopoly may be formed in the global DRAM industry in which chip prices will “gradually stabilize, bidding farewell to the price-slashing market competition of the past,” DRAMexchange said.
The price of the benchmark DDR3 two-gigabit DRAM chip reached US$1.06 yesterday, compared with a record low of US$0.71 in November, at a time when the DRAM industry was in a down cycle, DRAMexchange said.
A potential Micron-Elpida deal will also help Taiwanese DRAM firms such as Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) and Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) to gain advanced process technology and improve product quality through their current partnerships with either Elpida or Micron, the researcher said.
Powerchip
Separately, Powerchip announced yesterday its board had agreed to a plan to cut 60 percent of its capital, or NT$33.24 billion in capitalization, and use the money to make up a widening financial deficit.
In the first quarter, Powerchip reported a net loss of NT$5.56 billion, which was the company's fifth consecutive quarterly loss. The first-quarter loss had improved from a loss of NT$8.87 billion in the prior quarter, but was still higher than the loss of NT$4.97 billion posted in the same quarter of last year.
The Hsinchu-based company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it planned to cancel 3.32 billion shares. The cancelation will reduce Powerchip’s paid-in capital to approximately NT$22.16 billion, the filing said.
Powerchip’s board of directors also approved the issue of as many as 6 million new shares via a private placement, with proceeds raised from the private placement to be used to “strengthen the firm’s working capital, repay bank loans, buy raw materials and acquire equipment and machinery,” according to the filing.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last