(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Hyundai Elecs., LG Semicon to Merge into World's Top DRAM Maker
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September 8, 1998 (SEOUL) -- Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.
and LG Semicon Co., Ltd. agreed to merge into what will become the world's
largest producer of DRAM chips.
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The move is part of a "big deal" business swap which has been pushed
by the government and Korea's top conglomerates in a bid to shore up
their finances and external competitiveness.
"Hyundai and LG groups agreed, in principle, on the merger of their semiconductor
units. Details on how to share management control and stakes will be
settled later," said a spokesperson of the Federation of Korean Industries
(FKI).
The FKI is a powerful lobbying group for Korea's large, family-run business
groups, or chaebols.
The merger will pose a threat to Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., which
was dropped from the deal, as well as rivals in Japan and Taiwan, industry
watchers said.
The combined company will have capacity to fabricate a total of 310,000
silicon wafers of 8 inches in diameter per month.
The two companies, together with Samsung Electronics, currently represent
nearly one third of the world's memory chip supply.
At present, Hyundai can produce 8 million units of 64Mb DRAMs and 18
million units of 16Mb DRAMs a month, while LG can make 9 million 64Mb
DRAMs and 25 million 16Mb DRAMs a month.
(Maeil Business Newspaper, Korea)
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