New Renesas chief vows renaissance

TOKYO — Renesas Electronics, founded in April from the merger of Renesas Technology with NEC Electronics, is spending its first hundred days kicking butt and taking names.

Yasushi Akao, president of Renesas Electronics Corp.

Yasushi Akao, president of Renesas Electronics Corp., in an exclusive interview with EE Times this week, said the new company’s priority is to make hard choices, lay out clear timelines and action plans and do all this in barely three months.

If Akao delivers, he would be breaking an unfortunate pattern for Japanese semiconductor companies in recent years. The global electronics industry has yet to see evidence that the consolidation of Japanese chip makers like Elpida Memory (Hitachi and NEC) or Renesas (Hitachi and Mitsubishi) can succeed.

Critics point out that the merged companies have struggled. They blame the dithering on a lack of clear goals, indecisiveness and slow execution of combined business plans, product roadmaps and operational processes.

"That won’t be happening again," vowed Akao.

Renesas was born through the merger of Renesas Technology (the world’s eighth largest semiconductor supplier in 2009, according to Gartner) and NEC Electronics (No. 11). Renesas is expected to become the world’s third largest semiconductor supplier based on combined revenue.

By early July, said Akao, "We will have time lines and action plans covering big picture matters such as roadmaps, product lineups and production lines, and more detailed matters including how to bring down the cost." Thus far, these goals have been pursued separately by two diverging semiconductor operations, said Akao.