SAN FRANCISCO—Micron Technology Inc., SK Hynix Inc. and Toshiba Corp. are all in the process of throwing their hats in the ring to acquire all or part of bankrupt Japanese DRAM vendor Elpida Memory Inc., according to media reports.
Elpida, Japan's only remaining DRAM vendor,
filed for bankruptcy last month after failing to find investment or get a second injection of government funding. Elpida is
soliciting bids from potential investors in an effort to pull itself out of bankruptcy protection.
Japan's
Nikkei newspaper reported Thursday (March 29) that, after initially turning down an opportunity to invest in Elpida prior to the company filing for bankruptcy, Toshiba had
decided to make a bid for Elpida. The
report said Toshiba could seek financial assistance from the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan.
The Japanese government reportedly
urged Toshiba to invest in Elpida in January, prior to the company's bankruptcy filing. But Toshiba, which itself excited the volatile DRAM industry years ago, reportedly declined.
Micron, which has reportedly been in negotiations with Elpida for several weeks about possible investment, plans to make a bid for Elpida, according to
a report by the Reuters news service, which cited unnamed sources. Goldman Sachs is acting as Micron's financial advisor on the bid, according to the
Reuters report.
In an email exchange with
EE Times, a spokesman for Micron declined to comment on reports of Micron bidding for Elipda, citing a company policy against commenting on rumors.
SK Hynix, the South Korean memory chip vendor formerly known as Hynix Semiconductor, said in a regulatory filing Friday that it had filed an initial bid for Elpida, according to a
separate Reuters report. The report, which indicated that the deadline for initial bids fell Friday, said Hynix indicated it would decided whether or not to make a formal bid for Elpida after conducting due diligence.
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