Renesas (Tokyo) recently took a big step in its turnaround efforts by exiting the NAND flash-memory market, which was a drain on resources and losing money for the company.

The supplier of microcontrollers, system-on-a-chip (SoC) and other ICs is not backing away from its core product markets. In fact, as part of its strategy, the company is bolstering its product efforts, hiring more overseas engineering talent in China, India and Vietnam, and is continuing its cost-cutting measures. There is also an initial public offering (IPO) in the works at Renesas, which is slated for the 2008 time frame.

On the manufacturing front, Renesas is expanding its IC-assembly efforts in China, but the company recently dropped plans to form a foundry venture in Japan. Instead, the company and its partners will co-develop process technologies at the 45-nM node and beyond.

The growth strategy appears to be bearing fruit for Renesas, the world's seventh largest semiconductor company in terms of sales in 2005, according to iSuppli Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.). In 2003, Japan's Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. combined their non-DRAM operations. The combined company was named Renesas Technology.

As reported, Renesas posted a loss and a 10 percent decline in sales for fiscal 2005. The company blamed the loss on sluggish sales for its flash memory products, microcontrollers and LCD drivers.

For fiscal 2006, Renesas expects sales of 970 billion yen ($8.4 billion), up 7.1 percent over the previous period. It also expects an operating profit of 16 billion yen ($139 million).

Currently, the company's chip sales are above plan

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved