Elpida DRAM Bankruptcy Saga
An intense bidding war is underway for 17% of global DRAM market share with the collapse of Elpida in Japan: http://bit.ly/HE4eTS
Bankrupt Elpida Inspires Billion-Dollar Bids
For a bankrupt company, Elpida Memory Inc. (6665) is getting a lot of attention as the subject of a billion-dollar chess game among the biggest technology companies. Whoever gets the prize will be in a better position to compete with Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory-chip maker, and make life even tougher for all smaller rivals.
Elpida was Japan’s largest maker of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips. Amid a stronger yen hurting exports, Elpida filed for bankruptcy protection on Feb. 27 after losing money for five quarters. Samsung successfully made the transition to mobile DRAM and controlled 54 percent of the global market for such chips, according to TrendForce Corp., a Taipei-based research company. Hynix followed with 21 percent and Elpida with 17 percent for mobile DRAM as of the fourth quarter of last year.
Elpida plans to select a bidder as part of its restructuring plan in early May, a Toshiba executive said March 30. The deadline for final bids is April 27, a person familiar with the matter said. Yukio Sakamoto, 64, Elpida’s president, is heading the company’s restructuring after getting court approval to serve as its trustee on March 23. Continue >>