DRAM: fusion Elpida, Micron and Toshiba to form a new giant?

What movements for the DRAM market? Would a priori, it is lead into a major merger, and term a rebound in prices.

The DRAM market is very competitive and since he entered a few months already in phase of overproduction, the course reached price floors. If that even the largest manufacturers find it difficult to identify adequate margins, some of them seeing their accounts turn red. A giant of the market as Japanese Elpida is clearly in difficulty and is not known if he will be able to comply with the recapitalisation programme undertaken by the Japanese Government, which will this year cost him much money. Growing leaders to seek money by all means, and to consider a merger of their activities with those of other actors such as Toshiba or Micron memory market.

X-bit Labs and DRAM eXchange, analyze the situation, believe that the process of concentration will move up a gear in the DRAM market and that the situation of competition is such that it is inevitable that mergers and takeovers are announced in the coming months, the only means of survival for some manufacturers. They imagine same Elpida, Micron and Toshiba join to form the largest world manufacturer of drams.

Which, for the consumer, is not really a good news, because once restructured, the market will more margin for manoeuvre to encourage a rebound in prices. In the end, the DRAM market could look like an oligopoly with three major manufacturers (Samsung, Hynix, and an alliance formed around Elpida).