Elpida找夥伴

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Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:57pm EST



Jan 26 (Reuters) - Japan's Elpida Memory Inc on Wednesday began presenting to its main lenders a plan to get back on its feet by forming partnerships with U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology and Taiwan's Nanya Technology , the Nikkei business daily reported.

Elpida, Japan's last remaining player in the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) market, faces a debt repayment crunch in late March and early April and hopes to form a three-way alliance by providing its DRAM technologies in return for financial assistance, the daily said.

The banks are expected to decide whether to refinance the firm's loans based on the progress in its capital and business partnership talks with Micron, Nikkei said.

Elpida has already made a request for capital to Micron and aims to sign a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. company as early as the beginning of next month, the daily reported.

Micron has already begun conducting due diligence and has selected Goldman Sachs Japan Co as its financial adviser for these negotiations. Elpida has signed up Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co, Nikkei said.

Elpida is considering a private placement of new shares with Micron and is expected to amend its charter to increase the maximum number of issuable shares, the daily said.

Once a deal becomes imminent, Elpida plans to enter talks aimed at receiving capital from Nanya's parent, Formosa Plastics Group, Nikkei said.

Elpida intends to offer its cutting-edge technologies to Nanya as well as the joint venture between Micron and Nanya and plans to dispatch engineers to Taiwan to see if its technologies can be introduced smoothly, the daily said.

The three-way alliance "can become the sole force that can take on Samsung" if they make Taiwan their main manufacturing base and mass-produce cutting-edge DRAMs at low cost there, an Elpida official told Nikkei.

Micron, which also makes NAND flash memory but reported a worse-than-expected net loss in its latest quarter, has a 10-year agreement with Nanya until 2018 to co-develop new DRAM chip technology. The two also run contract DRAM maker Inotera Memory via a joint venture.

The DRAM market has been hit by slumping prices in a weak economy and as consumers switch to tablets that use flash memory instead of DRAM chips.