Fujitsu and Panasonic merge their chip business

Fujitsu and Panasonic have reportedly reached an agreement to merge the system chip design and development business this autumn as soon as possible. The chip designed by the new company will be subcontracted. The market expects that TSMC will accept the relevant orders and is the biggest beneficiary. According to reports, the new company's total capital injection is approximately 490 million U.S. dollars (50 billion yen), of which Fujitsu and DBJ plan to inject 20 billion yen each, and Matsushita will invest 10 billion yen. The president of the new company will be the former president of Japan’s Kyocera Corporation. Panasonic and Fujitsu plans to transfer about 3,000 employees to the new company.

Some analysts pointed out that Matsushita and Fujitsu have divested their chip business units and set up joint ventures in order to reduce competition in the domestic industry through this move and instead focus on narrowing the competition gap with other Asian countries. .

The new company’s capital generated by the merger will reach 50 billion yen (US$488 million), while Fujitsu and Panasonic will each hold 40% and 20%; the Japan Development Bank will provide the remaining funds and may obtain preferred shares. The new company will become a fabless company and will outsource the design of the chips in the future.

The legal person pointed out that TSMC has taken over the world's major chip design OEM orders, and after the new chipmaker joint venture between Fujitsu and Panasonic has started operations, it is expected that TSMC will also launch a film at TSMC, which will be one of the dynamics of TSMC's performance.

Fujitsu and Panasonic announced the cooperation plan in February last year and continued to negotiate details such as the shareholding ratio. The two companies plan to transfer about 3,000 employees to the new company, of which 80% may be from Fujitsu and the related intellectual property rights are also transferred.

Fujitsu has technological advantages in wireless communications and image processing. Panasonic specializes in home appliance control technology. The two companies will also work together to improve the efficiency of automotive and home chips.

Both Fujitsu and Panasonic have attached great importance to the restructuring of the semiconductor business. Panasonic recently announced plans to sell Israeli and Singaporean companies to Japan and overseas plants, and to cut half of the manpower in the chip division.

On the other hand, Fujitsu identified about 150 billion yen (1.47 billion U.S. dollars) in losses related to measures such as reforming the chip business in fiscal year 2012, and sold microcontrollers and analog chip businesses to U.S. flash memory manufacturers. Spansion).

In addition, Fujitsu considers key investors such as open-end investment funds to invest in core semiconductor plants in Mie Prefecture. Fujitsu originally planned to sell the plant in February last year and set up a manufacturing company together with TSMC, but it ended without success.

Earlier this year, Fujitsu announced the completion of its 28-nanometer system-on-chip (SoC) design and began accepting customer orders. Although Fujitsu has its own fab, the chip with Panasonic’s new joint venture company will be commissioned outside the company. It is expected that the adoption of the new process design will probably rely more on TSMC.