Infineon looks to Taiwan

Tough times call for D-RAM-atic co-operation...

Infineon, the semiconductor arm of Siemens, is rumoured to be on the verge of merging some of its memory chip operations with those of three Taiwanese producers. Infineon CEO Ulrich Schumacher has admitted talks with Mosel Vitelic, Nanya and Winbond. Any move would give the companies a world-leading total of about one fifth of the worldwide market for D-RAM chips. The German company has been reported to have had talks with Japan's Toshiba earlier this year. However, any deal may have stalled. Infineon is in the midst of a restructuring programme, part of which sees 5,000 jobs being lost globally.