The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy on Wednesday racheted up the Korean government's revived campaign to push troubled Hynix Semiconductor Inc. into a strategic marketing and development alliance with Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest DRAM maker.
Kook-Hwan Shin made the pitch at a meeting of Korean semiconductor firms, even as a pending Micron Technology Inc. $4 billion offer to take over seven Hynix DRAM fabs hung in the balance.
What made Shin's call for a Hynix-Samsung alliance of interest was his former position as head of the corporate Hynix Restructuring Committee. The Korean government in the last month has promoted the concept of a chip alliance between the two major national semiconductor companies, an idea which Samsung has steadfastly rejected.
Some analysts viewed Minister Shin's statement as only another in the torrent of comments from government, creditor and Hynix officials intended to influence the course of the protracted negotiations with Micron.
Hynix itself issued a statement Monday claiming that the firm's board of directors was "seriously discussing a stand-alone business model with full support from creditors."
Any agreement with Micron to take over the seven DRAM fabs would "be a non-binding memorandum of understanding and assure the validity of the Hynix remaining company as a non-memory business with a Micron minority investment."
The Hynix creditors, which are key to any deal with Micron, are slated to meet this week to consider a counter-offer to the U.S. firm for the fab takeover.
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