Elpida is close to throwing in the tower, and it looks like the old memory maker has run out of options after being denied loans and suggestions to restructure from the Japanese goverment. Micron has now put in the winning bid to acquire Elpida.
We have been following this development and after years of hopeful news things went darker. Behind closed doors there have been discussions of selling Elpida, where Toshiba and GlobalFoundries have been part of the bidding process. The American actor Micron got the highest bid for Elpida, which according to industry sources will be between 1-3 – 1.5 billion dollar.
The value of Elpida is in its fabs in Hiroshima that are estimated to around 1 billion dollar, which is a very small sum compared to what it costs to build a whole new fab. Micron has approximately 2.1 miljarder dollar to invest in acquisitions and general investments, but since 2010 also Micron has been having a tough time.
Elpida’s Hiroshima fab has attracted Micron
The new VP Mark Durcan,says that he expects DRAM prices and increased capacity on both DRAM and NAND will get them back on track. This is a statement we should emphasize as not even Intel and Micron say that they can’t satisfy the demand for NAND memories.
Elpida will help the company produce more DRAM, and this would put them in a better position to compete with giant Samsung. Micron made a similar move when it bought Intel’s shares of IMFT (Intel Micron Flash Technologies). This was to increase capacity and in turn position itself better against the competition. If Micron wins the bid on Elpida, we hope it has plans to produce and sell circuits based on the ReRAM technology.
Source: TomsHardware
