LONDON – Renesas Mobile Corp., the mobile chip company subsidiary of struggling Renesas Electronics Corp., could be put up for sale as part of a previously reported re-organization. Other details that emerged in an Asahi Shimbun report that referenced unnamed sources included that Renesas is considering closing or selling off at least 10 of its 19 domestic manufacturing plants over the next three years.
Other local reports put the closure list as high as 12 and said the moves could be made within one or two years.
The closures are in-line with previous reports that Renesas plans to eliminate up to 14,000 jobs, or about 30 percent of its workforce, while selling the company’s leading system-chip fab in Yamagata to leading foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (see Renesas cuts 14,000 jobs; sells fab to TSMC).
The downsizing is intended bring the company into profitability. Renesas has been loss-making since its formation as a merger of the chipmaking interests of NEC and Renesas Technology in 2010.
The latest local reports detailed that the factory closures could produce 4,000 lay-offs, while 5,000 staff could be offered early retirement. Renesas Mobile employs about 1,800 people, who could be taken of Renesas' books by a sale and 1,300 workers employed at the Yamagata wafer fab are due to transfer to TSMC. Similarly Renesas has already decided to sell a wafer fab in Aimori prefecture that makes microcontrollers to Fuji Electric Co. thereby eliminating 550 people from its payroll.
Renesas will keep its Naka wafer fab in Ibaraki prefecture as its main facility, the Asahi Shimbun report said. The Naka plant was badly damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of 2011 and the rapid rehabilitation of the plant was one of numerous heroic achievements that took place after the disaster.
Related links and articles:
Asahi Shimbun article
Renesas extends MCU work with TSMC to 40-nm
Renesas cuts 14,000 jobs; fab sale to TSMC
Renesas still struggling with restructuring plan
Reports: Renesas to tie up with TSMC, cut jobs
FujiPanaRene: clinging to the wreckage
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