Toshiba, Infineon To Merge Memory Chip Ops
Thursday, October 18, 2001
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Toshiba Corp. (6502) and major German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG are in the final stages of a deal to unify their memory chip businesses, sources familiar with the talks said Wednesday. The firms could begin operating in tandem as early as next spring.
Toshiba, which decided in August to spin off its memory chip operations and merge them with a rival company, had been in talks with the German chipmaker and Samsung Electronics Co. It broke off negotiations with the South Korean firm on Wednesday.
Under the deal, two joint ventures will be set up, one for DRAM and the other for flash memory. Infineon will likely own a majority stake of the DRAM unit, while Toshiba is expected to own 80-90% of the flash memory operation.
Infineon, a semiconductor arm of Siemens AG, is the world's fourth-largest DRAM maker, while Toshiba is the sixth-largest. Combined share in the global DRAM market will be 16%, following Samsung Electronics, which has a 20% share and Micron Technology Inc.
Toshiba, which holds the top spot in the large-capacity flash memory market, aims to outdistance runner-up Samsung by teaming with Infineon.
DRAM prices have fallen more than 80% since the beginning of the year, pushing every manufacturer into the red. Demand is forecast to rebound after 2003, but the partners opted to merge rather than try to maintain independent operations.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Thursday morning edition) |
