After several rounds of long and difficult negotiation, major electronics brand Sharp finally accepted the acquisition offer made by Taiwan-based contract manufacturer Foxconn (also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry) on February 25. This tie-up, which has been a trending topic within the global technology sector, will have a major and long-term impact on the display industry and the related panel application markets, according to WitsView, a division of TrendForce.
Unisplendour, the Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Chinese technology conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup, announced on February 23 that its board decided to terminate their investment plan in U.S. data storage company Western Digital (WD). This announcement came after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) sent a letter notifying Unisplendour that the agency will be reviewing the WD deal.
China’s NAND Flash industry witnessed a steady growth in investments through 2015. As Chinese semiconductor companies build up their memory manufacturing capabilities at the wafer level, they are also beginning to pay greater attention to the production of controller chips for memory products. DRAMeXchange believes that the Chinese semiconductor sector will focus on controller houses in its next phase of development due to the component’s vital position in the NAND Flash chain.
DRAMeXchange, a division of global research firm TrendForce, reports that the decline in mobile DRAM prices eased in the fourth quarter of 2015. By comparison, PC DRAM suffered a 16% quarterly price decline during the same period. Since the second half of 2015 was the traditional strong season for smartphone shipments, the mobile DRAM industry saw its global revenue fell by a mere 1% in the final quarter.
The global DRAM industry posted US$10.27 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015, representing a 9.1% drop from the prior quarter, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. The revenue decline was attributed to the falling DRAM average selling prices and the persistent market oversupply.