Erbida was born in 1999, which actually integratesHitachi、NEC、Mitsubishi ElectricThe establishment of DRAM business has the government's will to protect Japan's DRAM industry.But after the early large-span expansion, Elpida appearedexcess production capacityProblem, leading to DRAM since 2007market priceA sharp decline.2008financial crisisIn China, DRAM global demand continues to decrease significantly, and product prices also further decline, and Elpida is on the verge of death.
In 2009, in JapanMinistry of Economy and IndustryUnder its leadership, Japan passed the amendment to the Industrial Regeneration Law, authorizing the Japanese government to help private enterprises with internationally advanced technology but facing operating difficulties.In June 2009, Elpida became the first beneficiary of the new law, obtaining 30 billion yen (about 370 million dollars) of public funds andGovernment Guarantee100 billion yen (about 1.24 billion dollars) Japanese policyinvestment bankFinancing.
Despite the government's capital injection and policy support, Elpida encountered the appreciation of the yen, the strong rise of its Korean counterpartsmarket demandAnd the decline of product prices, the business has not improved significantly.Published by Elpida in early February 2012Financial statementsIt shows that in the final accounts from April to December 2011, the company lost 98.9 billion yen (about 1.2 billion dollars).
Elpida went bankrupt and sold asSemiconductor industryThe focus of attention, andHony Capital And the United StatesPrivate Offering FundTPGThe news that capital entered the second round of bidding for Elpida attracted more attention from domestic media.
According to insiders,Hony Capital The driving force behind the acquisition of Elpida islegend groupBut the details are unknown.The above person also revealed that in order to fully understand Elpida,Hony Capital Also worked with domestic chip enterprisesSMIC InternationalHad communication.
Hony Capital The head of media relations declined to comment on the rumors.Lenovo Group officials also declined to comment.Hony Capital Both the parent company of Lenovo GroupLenovo Holdings。
iSuppliSemiconductor ChiefanalystGu WenjunHe said that if Lenovo Group promoted the acquisition of Elpida, it is likely that the company is strengthening the stability of the supply chain.
This is consistent with the views of the Japanese media.According to《Japan Economic News》According to the report,Hony Capital The reason for participating in the merger of Elpida is that Lenovo Group does not want Elpida to fall into the hands of others.
According to the report, Lenovo's computers andIntelligent mobile phoneDRAM chip suppliers are Elpida and Samsung(Weibo)Electronics, but Lenovo Group is increasing its purchase of Elpida chips due to the dispute with Samsung over the supply price of chips.
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Market share
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January 2012Memory chipAccording to the market share, Samsung accounted for 41%, Hyundai 23% and Elpida 13.5%.If Elpida disappears again, Samsung and Hyundai will dominate the market.
Yukio Sakamoto, president of the company, is expected toTake the blame and resign。Japanese Economy and Industry MinisterEdano Yukio stayPress conference"This is a very regrettable thing, and I hope to minimize its impact on the domestic economy and employment," he said.
In 2009, Elpida became the first Japanese enterprise to apply the Law on Special Measures for Industrial Revitalization, and received government capital injection, but its business restructuring failed.Erbida entersInsolvency protection procedureIt may bring burden to Japanese people.Tokyo Stock ExchangeIt was announced on the same day that the company's shares would be delisted on March 28.
Sakamoto is applyingbankruptcy protectionLater at the press conference, he said that the current management would be the center for restructuring.[2]
Insolvency impact
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applyBankruptcy reorganizationLater, Erpida issuedOrdinary corporate bonds、Convertible corporate bondsThe principal and interest amount of such defaulted debt will reach 138.5 billion yen (about 1.7 billion dollars).The part previously invested by the Japanese governmentPublic fundsIt will also be unable to recover, so the national burden will increase by up to 28 billion yen (about 350 million dollars).[3-4]
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a situation of tripartite confrontation
micron technology
American semiconductor manufacturersmicron technology It announced on Monday that it would acquire Japanese chip manufacturer Elpida for 2.5 billion dollars.Analysts said that once Micron Technology took over the bankrupt Elpida and simplified its operation, DRAMMemory chipThe supply and price of will become stable, and the whole industry will benefit from it.
Market research companySanford Bernstein analyst Mark Newman wrote after Micron announced the transaction: "In the long run, with the merger of DRAM memory chip industry, we expectMarket supplyIt will become more reasonable. For the surviving memory chip manufacturers, their profits will be higher and more stable. "
After the acquisition of Elpida, Meguiar Technology will replace Hynix as the world's second largest DRAM memory chip manufacturer in terms of revenue, second only to Samsung Electronics.DRAM memory chips are widely used in PC andMobile DevicesMedium.Although there are many DRAM memory chip manufacturers in Taiwan, due to their small scale, this market will gradually beSamsung Electronics, Micron Technology andhynix Dominated by.
Price stabilizing
This transaction coincides with the time when many DRAM memory chip manufacturers are trying to get rid of losses.Due to the weak price, many DRAM memory chip manufacturers have suffered losses. As they continue to increase production capacity to improve or maintain market share, this market has become the world of a few highly competitive manufacturers.With the high commercialization of DRAM memory chips for PC, the price is not improving, and many manufacturers are difficult to make profits.
As the only DRAM memory chip manufacturer in Japan, Elpida was forced to file for bankruptcy protection in late February due to the decline in product prices and the appreciation of the yen squeezing its overseas profits. Shortly after Elpida applied for bankruptcy protection, the market generally expected that the global supply of DRAM memory chips might tighten, leading to its price beginning to rise.
market researchMike Howard, an analyst of IHS iSuppli, said in a report: "The merger tide of DRAM memory chip market was ignited by the bankruptcy of Elpida, and the acquisition of Elpida by Micron Technology will accelerate this trend, which will make the price of DRAM memory chips more stable." IHS iSuppli predicted that because the price of chips is more stable,The overall revenue of the global DRAM industry is expected to grow by 3.3% to reach US $30.5 billion, while the revenue will plummet by 25%.
Production transformation
Newman believes that Micron Technology is expected to provide some DRAM memory chips to ElpidaProduction facilitiesCarry out transformation and turn it into productionNANDFlash MemoryAt the same time, some of Elpida's most efficient factories will be shut down.He said that this process will further alleviate the oversupply of DRAM memory chips.DRAM and NAND are two different memory chips, which are used by mobile devices such as smart phones.
CEO of Micron TechnologyMark Durcan (Mark Durcan) refused to disclose details about how to transform Elpida DRAM factory, but he said that Micron Technology could indeed solve the problem of market demand in this way.Although it is widely expected that after the global market share of Micron Technology increases, it will pose a greater threat to competitors Samsung Electronics and Hynix, analysts believe that these two Korean companies are also ready to benefit from industry mergers and the trend of stabilizing chip prices.
Samsung Electronics and Hynix declined to comment on whether the acquisition of Elpida by Micron Technology would affect their business.
Limited benefits
In contrast, the merger tide in the current market will make Taiwan DRAM memory chip manufacturers such as Huaya Technology, South Asia Technology and Huabang Electronics face greater challenges.Huaya Technology is the foundation of Micron Technology and South Asia TechnologyJoint Venture。Analysts said that since Taiwan's DRAM memory chip manufacturers do not have any advantage in competing with larger Korean competitors, it is estimated that mergers and acquisitions in Taiwan's DRAM memory chip industry will intensify in the next few years.
William Wong, an analyst with Taiwan Fubang Securities Company, said that although DRAM price stability is also a problem for Taiwan manufacturersnews that causes a rise in the stock index or in a particular stock, but due toTechnology and marketIts share is far behind that of competitors such as Samsung Electronics and Hynix, and their ability to benefit from the improvement of the overall environment will be greatly limited.
Huaya Technology and South Asia Technology both reject theirCompetitive environmentOr the possibility of merger, and Huabang Electronics has not commented on this.[5]
