Micron Technology Inc yesterday agreed to close the NT$132.5 billion (US$4.19 billion) buyout of its Taiwanese DRAM manufacturing arm in early December, ending months-long speculation about a potential collapse of the deal.
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科), 33 percent owned by Micron, yesterday said its board has approved the deal with Micron’s local subsidiary Micron Memory Taiwan Co Ltd (台灣美光) at NT$30 per common share in cash.
Inotera is to be delisted from the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Dec. 6, after Micron wraps up the purchase of its remaining 67 percent stake in Inotera, the chipmaker said.
The transaction was originally scheduled to be closed in the middle of July, but Micron postponed the deal in June.
“Micron spent a little more time reviewing Inotera’s operations before reaching the agreement,” Inotera chairman Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) said at a news conference yesterday.
As part of the deal, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), another Inotera major shareholder, agreed to sell its 24.2 percent stake in the firm to Micron for NT$47.6 billion and to spend NT$31.5 billion at most to subscribe to Micron stocks, or stocks and bonds via private placements, Lee said.
Lee is also the president of Nanya.
Micron is scheduled to set its price early next month, according to Lee.
With the investment, Nanya is likely to own as much as a 5.4 percent stake in Micron and to become the largest shareholder of Idaho-based memorychip maker Boise, based on Micron’s closing share price of US$17.5 on Monday.
The deal will also allow Nanya, the nation’s biggest DRAM chipmaker, to secure next-generation 10-nanometer technologies from the US memorychip maker, Lee said.
Lee said Samsung Electronics Co’s suspension of Note 7 production would not significantly reduce demand for mobile DRAM chips.
“I don’t see any impact at all so far,” Lee said.
Other smartphone vendors would replace Samsung’s role in supplying phones to consumers, he said.
Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) expects Apple Inc and China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為), Vivo Electronics Corp (維沃移動通信) and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動) to benefit from Samsung’s suspension of Note 7 sales and exchanges.
The Taipei-based researcher said the suspension of Note 7 production would not impact the price hikes of handset key components including DRAM chips, as Samsung’s competitors are set to increase supply.
Separately, Nanya yesterday said its revenue rose 1.18 percent to NT$3.5 billion last month from NT$3.46 billion in August as shipments and average selling prices rose slightly. Last month’s figure marked its highest level since January.
During last quarter, Nanya’s revenue expanded to NT$102.04 billion, a 10.42 percent increase from the second quarter’s NT$8.93 billion.
Inotera yesterday said revenue jumped 35.5 percent to NT$5.47 billion last month from NT$4.04 billion in August.
In the third quarter, the firm’s revenue surged 20.29 percent to NT$13.93 billion from NT$11.58 billion in the second quarter, it said.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
AI-FUELED DEMAND: The company has been benefiting from the skyrocketing prices for DRAM chips amid the AI frenzy, especially its core product — DDR4 DRAM chips DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday reported that its revenue for the first quarter surged 582.91 percent to NT$49.09 billion (US$1.54 billion) from NT$7.19 billion a year earlier, as the supply crunch caused chip price spikes. Last quarter’s figure is the highest on record. On a quarterly basis, revenue jumped 63.14 percent from NT$30.09 billion, the company said. In January, Nanya Technology expected global DRAM supply scarcity to continue through the first half of 2028, thanks to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecast prices of standard DRAM chips would rise between 58 percent and 63
HIGHER PRICES: Given rising energy costs, CPC raised natural gas prices for generators by 41.58%, which Taipower said would raise its power generation costs by NT$10 billion State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) has activated its fourth naphtha cracker to boost ethylene supply, aiming to ease concerns over plastic material shortages amid tensions in the Middle East, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The move is expected to add 19,000 tonnes of supply this month and 30,000 tonnes next month, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Chin-tsang (何晉滄) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. CPC on Tuesday held talks with major polyethylene producers, including Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), Asia Polymer Corp (亞聚) and USI Corp (台聚), and pledged to supply ethylene feedstock
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