The veils lift slowly from the Fujitsu/Panasonic merger plans
1 min read
It's a year or so since Fujitsu and Panasonic unveiled plans to merge their system LSI businesses into a new company. Now, the two companies have confirmed the new – as yet unnamed – organisation is set to open its doors for business in October 2014.
Fujitsu and the Development Bank of Japan will each hold 40% of the new venture, with Panasonic holding the remaining 20%. Once established, the company will have some 3000 employees and annual sales of about €1billion.
This merger is the latest in a number of attempts over the years to rationalise Japan's semiconductor industry. Previously, similarly sized companies addressed the same markets with pretty much the same portfolio of products. That worked well in the 1980s, when the arrival of the Japanese semiconductor sector was akin to a fox turning up in the global chicken coop. More recently, most of these companies have struggled to maintain their market shares and a number of mergers have ensued.
Since the plan was announced in 2013, Fujitsu has divested its MCU and analogue business to Spansion, narrowing its offering to customised SoCs (ASICs), foundry services, ASSPs and FRAM. Panasonic makes a range of devices, from MPUs to analogue and power products.
With the new venture being fabless, manufacturing capacity will be needed. Fujitsu has capacity at the 55nm node, while Panasonic recently assigned three fabs into a joint venture with Tower Jazz and committed to buy from the JV for the next five years.
As ever with such deals, the veils lift only slowly.
