TMCnet News
Renesas Electronics to enter chip-production tie-up with Taiwan firm(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, May 28 -- (Kyodo) _ Semiconductor maker Renesas Electronics Corp. said Monday it will enter into a chip-manufacturing tie-up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as the struggling Japanese company tries to improve its financial standing. While Renesas will outsource the production of 90-nanometer microcontrollers to the Taiwanese company, the two will jointly produce 40-nanometer microcontrollers at their plants and help one another in case of emergency situations like the March 11 earthquake and tsunami last year that seriously disrupted supply chains. Renesas has been widely reported to be considering trimming around 14,000 jobs, or around 30 percent of its entire workforce, while selling the Tsuruoka plant in Yamagata Prefecture run by subsidiary Renesas Yamagata Semiconductor Co. to the Taiwanese company, but company officials said nothing has been officially decided yet. Renesas reported a consolidated net loss of 62.6 billion yen in the business year ended in March and has withheld releasing an earnings outlook for the current business year through next March. The Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture-based company controls about 40 percent of the global market for microcontrollers for automobiles and also produces chips technically called system LSI devices used in home electronics and video game machines. (c) 2012 Kyodo News International, Inc. |