Micron is supposed to buy Nanya's share of Inotera soon (cf electronicsweekly.com ). It isn't clear to me why, unless they get it for a song and a dance. Even then, it is losing a lot of money, although I suppose if it means that they don't have to invest in any new DRAM fabs and it boosts their market share to make them a more solid number 3 after Samsung and Hynix, it might pay off. And it would give them more bulk to defend against Elpida merging with some of the Taiwan DRAM producers. There is some serious jockeying going on among the DRAM vendors in order to survive.
Nanya, Inotera see combined losses top NT$25 billion in 2010
Josephine Lien, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 21 January 2011]
digitimes.com
Nanya Technology and Inotera Memories are likely to post a combined loss of more than NT$25 billion (US$858 million) in 2010, market sources have estimated. Both DRAM makers suffered larger losses in the last quarter of the year, affected by falling DDR3 prices.
With suppliers including Samsung Electronics, Inotera and Rexchip Electronics ramping up their capacities using more advanced processes, quotes for DDR3 chips fell significantly during the fourth quarter, the sources observed. Weaker-than-expected sales of desktops and notebooks also had an impact on the demand side, the sources added.
Nanya's net losses could widen to almost NT$10 billion in the fourth quarter from NT$2.3 billion in the third, the sources indicated. Meanwhile, Inotera will generate net losses of between NT$4 billion and NT$6 billion, compared to losses of NT$2.6 billion in the prior quarter.
Both Nanya and Inotera have declined to comment. The pair will jointly hold an investors conference on January 24 to unveil their financial results for the fourth quarter.
Nanya reported NT$4.98 billion in net losses in the first quarter of 2010, while Inotera's net losses were NT$5.99 billion.
Both Nanya and Inotera have said transitioning to a 40nm-class process node will help lower their production costs effectively in 2011. Their yield rates for 50nm-class production have improved to between 75% and 80%. |
