Reorganisation
Mitsubishi Electric and commenced operations as a system IC company. Dr
Koichi Nagasawa has been appointed chairman and CEO, and Satoru Ito was
appointed as president and chief operations officer.
The newly integrated European operations will be headquartered in Bourne
End, near Maidenhead in the UK, with major centres in Dusseldorf and Munich,
Germany. In all, the company has operations in 12 countries across Europe,
Middle East and Africa providing sales, marketing and engineering support.
Associated manufacturing facilities are sited in Alsdorf and Landshut,
Germany. Matthew Trowbridge has been appointed CEO of the new company, while
Yutaka Funada, formerly COO of Mitsubishi Electric Europes Semiconductor
business unit, has been appointed senior executive vice-president.
Trowbridge comments: "The merger gives Renesas the scale needed to sustain
its commitment to the IDM (integrated device manufacturer) model with
control of its own technology development, design, manufacture and supply.
We believe this is necessary to keep a leading position in applications
requiring complex system solutions."
Integration of operations has also been completed in North America.
Additionally, 13 Japanese affiliated companies have been incorporated as
well as eight overseas affiliated companies. Renesas affiliated companies
in Asia are due to start operations by July 2003.
Renesas offers a line-up of microcomputers, memories, multi-purpose ICs,
application specific ICs and discrete semiconductors along with
system-in-package (SiP) technology. The new company is structured into three
primary business units:
Renesas has adopted the marketing slogan "Everywhere you imagine".
Dialog Semiconductor is planning to close its Swedish subsidiary. The
decision is designed to control both costs and headcount. The company says
that it has decided to focus on its core competence, which is the design and
manufacture of ICs.
The Swedish facility has a staff of 40 people, the majority of whom are
employed in auxiliary tasks such as development of evaluation boards and
software. A company spokesman says that these activities can be covered at
lower cost through staff at other company locations and through outsourcing.
Only three or four staff members in Sweden were engaged in chip design.
These were specialists in logic rather than the companys core activity,
which is the development and supply of mixed-signal components with an
emphasis on analogue signal handling. These designs often include
analogue-digital conversion and power management functions.
Applications are aimed at the wireless communications, automotive and
industrial markets. The products are developed in 100% CMOS. The company is
headquartered near Stuttgart, Germany, with additional design facilities in
the UK, the USA, Austria and Japan.
AMD and Fujitsu have made a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a
new Flash memory semiconductor company headquartered in Sunnyvale,
California. A Japan headquarters will be located in Tokyo. The new company,
to be called FASL LLC, will be based on the integration of AMD and Fujitsus
Flash memory businesses, including their existing joint manufacturing
venture, Fujitsu AMD Semiconductor Limited (FASL).
The new company is expected to begin operations in Q3 this year. AMD will
own a 60% interest in the new company with Fujitsu holding the remainder.
Financial results will be consolidated in AMDs financial statements.
A marketing arrangement will have the new company selling Flash memory
products through AMD and Fujitsu and their respective sales forces, under a
product brand name to be announced by the start of operations of the new
company. The initial global workforce will be 7000.
AMD expects to contribute its Flash memory group, Fab 25 in Austin, Texas,
the Submicron Development Center (SDC) in Sunnyvale, California, and final
Flash memory assembly and test operations in Thailand, Malaysia, and China.
Fujitsu will contribute its Flash memory business division and it Fujitsu
Microelectronics (Malaysia) final assembly and test operation. Also, the
companies will jointly contribute the 50-50 manufacturing joint venture
Fujitsu AMD Semiconductor Limited (FASL) in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan.
Honeywells Electronic Materials (HEM) business has integrated with the
companys Electronic Chemicals operation. HEM supplies materials for
semiconductor chip manufacturing and advanced IC packaging. Electronic
Chemicals develops and manufactures application specific etchants and
cleaning chemistries. The combination is designed to focus resources on
critical solutions for the semiconductor, wafer manufacture, MEMS
(micro-electro-mechanical system), parts cleaning and mask making markets.
Honeywell says that the businesses compliment each other so well that
minimal overlap and redundancies are expected.
