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DrQuine
Hmm. An interesting phrase: "Analysts have speculated that a Micron acquisition ...
resistion
Maybe it all doesn't matter if DRAM is replaced soon by a nonvolatile memory ...
Micron confirms Elpida acquisition talks
Dylan McGrath
5/10/2012 1:53 AM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO—U.S. memory chip vendor Micron Technology Inc. confirmed Thursday (May 10) it is engaged in discussions with trustees for bankrupt Japanese DRAM vendor Elpida Memory Inc. in an attempt to acquire Elpida.
Micron (Boise, Idaho) has been widely reported to be among the only remaining bidders for Elpida, which filed for bankruptcy in February and put itself up for sale through an unusual auction process. But Micron had previously declined to confirm the reports.
Micron said it made the announcement following a Thursday approval by the Tokyo District Court allowing Elpida's trustees to negotiate an agreement with Micron. If an agreement is reached, Micron would become Elpida's sponsor and acquire Elpida's entire business in accordance with the corporate reorganization proceedings, Elpida said.
According to Micron, Elpida decided to move forward with Micron as its sponsor after the auction process, which closed last week.
After making an initial bid to acquire Elpida, SK Hynix Inc. reportedly dropped out of the bidding last week. According to reports, the only other final bid was a combined bid from Chinese investment firm Hony Capital teamed with U.S. private equity firm TPG.
Analysts have speculated that a Micron acquisition of Elpida would remake the DRAM landscape, substantially increasing Micron's market share while also reducing the total amount of DRAM capacity, which would improve pricing. Many observers believe that Micron would convert some of Elpida's fab capacity to NAND flash memory production.
Micron (Boise, Idaho) has been widely reported to be among the only remaining bidders for Elpida, which filed for bankruptcy in February and put itself up for sale through an unusual auction process. But Micron had previously declined to confirm the reports.
Micron said it made the announcement following a Thursday approval by the Tokyo District Court allowing Elpida's trustees to negotiate an agreement with Micron. If an agreement is reached, Micron would become Elpida's sponsor and acquire Elpida's entire business in accordance with the corporate reorganization proceedings, Elpida said.
According to Micron, Elpida decided to move forward with Micron as its sponsor after the auction process, which closed last week.
After making an initial bid to acquire Elpida, SK Hynix Inc. reportedly dropped out of the bidding last week. According to reports, the only other final bid was a combined bid from Chinese investment firm Hony Capital teamed with U.S. private equity firm TPG.
Analysts have speculated that a Micron acquisition of Elpida would remake the DRAM landscape, substantially increasing Micron's market share while also reducing the total amount of DRAM capacity, which would improve pricing. Many observers believe that Micron would convert some of Elpida's fab capacity to NAND flash memory production.
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resistion
5/10/2012 4:44 AM EDT
Hynix reportedly switched its Wuxi DRAM fab to NAND. If Micron similarly converts Elpida facilities to NAND, then we are not seeing it beef up its position in DRAM but rather keeping up in NAND. However, didn't hear about Samsung converting its DRAM resources.
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goafrit
5/10/2012 5:58 AM EDT
The challenge for Micron is that Samsung is still a bull in this business. No matter who is running the fab, they have to contend with the scale of Samsung.
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any1
5/10/2012 10:03 AM EDT
The tool set required to produce DRAM and NAND is very similar. Micron (and any other player in both businesses) has some freedom to shift wafer starts from one to the other, even within the same fab, depending on which has the higher margins at any given time.
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resistion
5/10/2012 2:30 PM EDT
Micron/Nanya/Inotera have trouble to move from 42 to 37 nm which is not even half-node. So I suspect taking on Elpida's 25 nm could be a much bigger challenge.
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moressd
5/10/2012 4:22 PM EDT
Wow-really? They must be publicly lying then:
http://www.micronblogs.com/
Click into "Don’t Miss Micron’s Take on DRAM and NAND Markets
" then the Jefferies 2012 Global TMT Conference link
And where's your 37 nm from? Have a link?
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resistion
5/10/2012 11:47 PM EDT
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110916005651/en/Research-Markets-Global-Chinese-Memory-Industry-Report
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resistion
5/10/2012 11:53 PM EDT
Last year they referred to 3X nm, but this year they use class designation, I think. So "30 nm" is actually some 3X nm, should be 37 nm.
http://www.dramexchange.com/WeeklyResearch/Post/2/2782.html
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moressd
5/11/2012 6:43 PM EDT
Dramexchange (or similar sites)is best at guessing the market trend but not technology. Many misleading info there....from various real tech sources, through teardown analysis, Micron's node is between 30nm and 32nm (37nm is probably Samsung's). Here's one of those: http://www.chipworks.com/en/technical-competitive-analysis/resources/technology-blog/category/packaging/
See the 2nd last paragraph of the 1st article that discusses the memory modules in HMC.
module
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resistion
5/11/2012 7:37 PM EDT
I read something about a 32 nm e-DRAM, but that's quite different from the standard DRAM.
If you check Inotera's site, they only offer down to 42 nm, so clearly they have trouble to go to 3x nm.
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resistion
5/11/2012 9:11 PM EDT
Micron's DRAM VP presentation showed a 30 nm die of 37mm2 and a 30 nm Shrink die of smaller size. So they would have two "30" nm nodes, probably one closer to 37 and one closer to 32. But if they have problems moving Inotera to these nodes, Elpida only makes it harder
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ibm221
5/10/2012 8:55 PM EDT
they are still talking, I bet m&m 's pants is wet now. If they take everything (won't happen) they pretty much will bankrupt in next 1 or 2 cycle.
Micron did this with a ugly thought of keeping it from chinese's hand, and it just won't work.
their logic is trying to increase scale and lower R&D cost per chip.
So which R&D site they will chop? Japan one for sure and it fall to chinese's hand just as qimonda. Micron ended up being an idiot anyway.
getting some expensive scale and losing core tech to chinese. Japanese should be really grateful to them.
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rockf
5/11/2012 10:39 AM EDT
The first and foremost goal for Micron must be to shut down Elpidas DRAM production.
When they talk about increasing DRAM market share, they are certainly lying. Who would want to have a larger market share just make more losses.
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moressd
5/11/2012 7:52 PM EDT
For resistion, see the 1st item in their Milestone link...
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resistion
5/12/2012 10:21 PM EDT
Maybe it all doesn't matter if DRAM is replaced soon by a nonvolatile memory more reliable and faster than flash.
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DrQuine
5/13/2012 11:03 PM EDT
Hmm. An interesting phrase: "Analysts have speculated that a Micron acquisition of Elpida would remake the DRAM landscape, substantially increasing Micron's market share while also reducing the total amount of DRAM capacity, WHICH WOULD IMPROVE PRICING." That sounds like a very polite way of describing a potential monopoly.
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