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joshxdr
Japanese electronics industry is too wedded to manufacturing. Japan focused on ...
de_la_rosa
I don't think that's the primary reason. 30 years ago, easy for Japanese to ...
Yoshida in Japan: Fujitsu-Panasonic JV makes no sense
Junko Yoshida
2/5/2013 1:01 AM EST
TOKYO--The merger of two ailing semiconductor businesses at Fujitsu and Panasonic, reported but not confirmed last week, will be a nonstarter. It will neither save Japan’s semiconductor industry nor improve Japan’s standing in system-on-chips (SoCs), which outside of Japan is virtually nil.
"Negative one plus negative one makes negative three," Takashi Yunogami, a director of Fine Processing Institute, dryly said in an interview with EE Times here Monday (Feb. 4). Yunogami was critical of Japanese bureaucrats and corporate executives who have been busy in recent years structuring mergers among struggling Japanese companies and calling it “synergy.”
Yunogami, formerly an engineering expert in dry etching at Hitachi, is now author of books on the Japanese semiconductor industry and a lecturer at several universities.
There is mounting evidence to support Yunogami’s argument.
Back in 2000, Japan had five separate chip companies--excluding captives. They were: Toshiba, Hitachi, NEC, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi. Hitachi spun off its semiconductor division, which became Renesas Electronics through subsequent mergers--first with Mitsubishi and then with NEC Electronics. Fujitsu also spun out its chip operation--now Fujitsu Semiconductor. Toshiba is the only company that neither separated its semiconductor business as an independent company nor forged a merger with another Japanese chip company. Twelve years later, Renesas’ revenue is continuing a spectacular downward spiral and Fujitsu’s chip business is beginning to slip. Only Toshiba remains on a growth track.
In any culture, mergers are never easy. But it’s clear that the prolonged process of merging chip operations at Hitachi, Mitsubishi and NEC sucked the life out of Renesas. No "synergy" is evident.
So, if you muttered "Not again," when you heard about the latest speculation about a Fujitsu-Panasonic deal, you are not alone.
This time around, though, the intriguing feature about the report was the absence of Renesas from the current round of rumor. The originally envisioned joint venture was supposed to be a three-way merger among SoC businesses at Fujitsu, Panasonic and Renesas.
As late as last June, Fujitsu President Masami Yamamoto was quoted in the Japanese media saying that Fujitsu still wants a system chip merger with Renesas and Panasonic. Yamamoto said in his interview with the Asahi newspaper that such a merger would only be considered if Renesas carries out an aggressive turnaround plan.
The absence of Renesas in the latest speculation implies two things: 1) Renesas is still far from actually completing its turnaround plan, with no additional bandwidth left to save its already feeble SoC business; 2) Renesas Mobile, Renesas’s mobile SoC subsidiary, sees no advantage in merging with either Fujitsu or Panasonic.
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eewiz
2/5/2013 5:34 AM EST
In my opinion, acquisition of Panasonic-Fujitsu JV by NTT or Renesas acquisition by Toyota/Denso , for the reason of keeping supply chain alive, doesnt make any sense at all. They should find alternate suppliers. I mean for the same reason, Panasonic and Fujitsu could have kept their semi divisions instead of divesting!
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junko.yoshida
2/5/2013 8:15 AM EST
eewiz, I know what you are saying.
But here’s the reality.
The mergers and acquisitions among Japanese chip companies in recent years have been engineered by Japanese bureaucrats and executives. They have been successfully pressured by *BIG* and powerful Japanese customers to restructure the Japanese semiconductor industry, in the name of saving Japan’s national interest (read: their industries – such as auto industry or telecommunication industry – in Japan).
But in truth, what they are looking for is a way to beat down the prices of chips supplied by the Japanese chip vendors.
All I am saying is that if that’s their goal, let them pay for a JV and own it. Have them run it as their own chip division.
Too many cooks – including bureaucrats, banks and customers – in a kitchen (at a JV) are ruining Japanese chip companies already merged.
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WW Thinker
2/5/2013 7:31 PM EST
No, your idea doesn't make sense! If NTT Docomo and Toyota become vertically integrated, given the history and the strong bureaucracy in the modern Japanese culture, the semiconductor divisions are going to become increasingly bloated. Instead of too many cooks, you are going to see many lazy cooks and workers! With the rich parents, the sons & daughters likely do not drive hard from inside!
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WW Thinker
2/5/2013 7:39 PM EST
The main reason why the Japanese semiconductors are where they are now is: they have been too comfy in their own environments for too long! Japan was used to be strong, if not the strongest in semiconductors, CE, computing, mobile communications many many years ago. With many of the Japan-OEM/ODM products being relegated to also-run, these Japanese semiconductor companies no longer have a secured profit base to work up. Worst still, these Japanese semiconductor companies never know how to compete in the bloody world market. A comfy home is going to accelerate their eventual demise or irrelevance.
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de_la_rosa
2/5/2013 11:20 AM EST
Individually they seem too weak to challenge big players in the global market. Suffering typical theme across Japan; that it has the technology but cannot provide it as cheap. Similar situation to Great Britain in the 20th Century, whereby Japan copied it's inventions and reproduced it cheaper.
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iniewski
2/5/2013 2:04 PM EST
sounds Japan Inc. needs a bold new plan to do something differently
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Work to Ride comma Ride to Work
2/6/2013 11:18 AM EST
Doesn't a merger give them the opportunity to reduce the collective corporate overhead? i.e. now there is one expensive CEO instead of two, etc.
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chipchap42
2/6/2013 12:14 PM EST
Fascinating article Junko, thanks. Extraordinary how the ebb and flow of fortunes in this business has gone - who could have predicted this at the height of the Japan success in the 80s/90s? Is it too simplistic to ask whether education and the importance of innovation is at the heart of this? The Japanese were so good at improving what already existed but seem to struggle to take it further. Discuss...!
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BobDJr
2/6/2013 2:13 PM EST
"I'm a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic...."
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yokoloco
2/6/2013 12:52 PM EST
Great article!
There is another angle here. It's less about giving the semi operation a chance to "thrive" on its own. It's about saving the parent company! The difference in Japan is that none of the execs wants to be known as the person who killed semiconductors. It happens in two steps: spin out the operations, then in a couple of years it survives on its own or goes softly into the night - like elpida. Hitachi is far healthier without elpida and renesas.
I agree that the most interesting thing is that Renesas is not involved. It could mean that they have found a buyer for Renesas Mobile who will also take the surplus SOC designers as well. Apple is in sore need of baseband technology to embed on their APs. Its either renesas mobile or st-ericcson
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selinz
2/6/2013 4:15 PM EST
The biggest obstacle for a company to stay vertically integrated is separating out the various groups into separate profit/loss groups. For simple minded (i.e. short term) investors, this allows them to make short term decisions that are almost always tactical rather than strategic. A protectionist policy (whether it's government or a large company) will increase the liklihood of remaining vertically integrated.. The Japanese govt. is less likely to be focussing on the short term.
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PHW_#1
2/6/2013 11:06 PM EST
Everything comes in a big circle, it wants to be an IDM - NTTDocomo again. I am wondering how big NTT docomo's market outside Japan? Japan need to face the reality - world is not buying Japanese electronics for various reasons. NTT docomo will not make money if they need to support empty fabs and so much personnel. Just drag down another company if you can't face the reality.
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jackOfManyTrades
2/7/2013 5:52 AM EST
Meanwhile everyone involved will be saying "ganbarimashou"...
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rick.merritt
2/7/2013 11:46 AM EST
I thought Handle Jones put his finger on a core issue this week at the Common Platform event in Silicon Valley when he said:
Japan is hampered by its slow decision-making process. “They have not adapted to a very fast moving world,” he said.
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4406401/Chip-market-to-contract-in-2013--says-analyst
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rick.merritt
2/7/2013 11:46 AM EST
Whoops that's "Handel"
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de_la_rosa
2/8/2013 6:07 AM EST
I don't think that's the primary reason. 30 years ago, easy for Japanese to dissect a German camera or British TV and reproduce and improve on design for cheaper manufacturing. Not so easy these days with micro-scale integrated products. Can't dissect a Samsung TV or Apple Iphone so easily.
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joshxdr
2/8/2013 1:48 PM EST
Japanese electronics industry is too wedded to manufacturing. Japan focused on the science of manufacturing and were very successful. Unfortunately, there are diminishing returns to this strategy, especially when standards of living improve and costs rise. When it became clear that creative distruction was necessary for Japanese industry to survive, the Japanese business culture could not allow that to happen.
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