Renesas seeks $620 million from KKR, says report

6/25/2012 11:58 AM EDT

Subsequent to the cash infusion, KKR should demand the departure of a few of the senior executives at Renesas within a quarter. If the rotten part of Renesas cannot be removed soon, the future shall remain very bleak.

6/25/2012 12:02 PM EDT

Following the cash in-fusion, KKR should demand the resignation of a few of the top executives at Renesas. Without a quick surgery to remove the rotten part to raise the morale and to held people accountable, Renesas shall remain weak and non-competitive.

6/25/2012 1:04 PM EDT

Well unfortunately it looks like after the cash infusion a lot of jobs will be axed.

What will be the next phase of life for what it was supposed woudl be number four in the global chip vendor rankings. Should it re-invent itself as just an automotive microcontroller company and sell everything else off?

6/25/2012 1:37 PM EDT

One way to quickly right the big ship (for sure, it will be way down #4 in view of the declining ranks of Renesas Tech and NEC Electronics every year since their spun-off): KRR locks all the key middle management and the selected few from the rank & files, in a remote location. Most, if not all, of the upper management should be prohibited from participation. In fact, if they have any sense of pride left, they should probably ask not to attend the soul-searching meeting. There should also be participation from the oversea offices of Renesas (again, the top management at these offices should be prohibited from attendance). Unless the group comes out with business plans with short-term and mid-term goals which make business sense (not the traditional Japanese sense), nobody can leave the gathering. Further, people should be held accountable with rewards and consequences Unless a radical approach is taken to find workable solutions soon, KKR is going to see the $620 disappeared very quicky in a dark hole without any positive effect. In view of the past history, KKR extracted a very poor ROI from its past investment at Philips Semi/NXP, Hopefully, KKR can make the best use of its investors' money this time.

6/25/2012 9:23 PM EDT

I am compelled to wonder what would have happened to the constituent companies of Renesas had Renesas not been formed.

6/26/2012 5:42 AM EDT

I guess Freescale will gain more traction with this situation, as it is one of the most dominant players in MCU auto market like Renesas. They can pan out more design wins from leading Japanese Auto OEMs and auto part manufacturers.

6/26/2012 11:38 AM EDT

@yjamal2k1

I am not sure the present situation has such a big impact, although financial and business uncertainty is never good.

The bigger impact would have come form the Great Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami, which caused disruption and loss of manufacturing to the automobile industry.

Japanese car makers' UK plants put their workforces on short time working for up to six months because of the lack of electronics subsystems, which were not there for want of a microcontroller. That is partly what the deal with TSMC is about, splitting the risk.

I think that whatever happens to Renesas it will remain strong in automotive microcontrollers for a while, but maybe not as strong as it was.

The continental dividing lines between car makers, their tier one suppliers and their preferred semiconductor suppliers, remain quite sharply defined, or am I wrong?

6/26/2012 10:52 PM EDT

During yesterday's stockholders' meeting, several executives were seen sleeping during the meeting. Only one person asked questions.

Stockholder "A":"What are you going to do with SOC?"
Akao: "We would like to get rid of it."

Stockholder "A": "What are the money money making products vs. money losing products?"
Akao: "MCU is making money, but the other two are not."

Stockholder "A": "How would you sell a factory?"
Akao: "I am sure someone will buy it." "We have not idea how to prevent our technology to be leaked. But we will try."

The stockholders' meeting started without much enthusiasm and ended with no enthusiasm.

6/27/2012 6:06 AM EDT

Are you sure the executives did not just have their eyes closed to aid concentration?