Micron Plans to Buy Hynix Assets for $3.4B

Reuters, via The Washington Post ^ | 22 April 2002 | Nam In-soo

[Vigilant1]

SEOUL, April 22-Micron Technology Inc signed on Monday a tentative deal worth about $3.4 billion to buy most of the assets of South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc in a move that would reshape the world computer memory chip market.

If the purchase goes through, U.S.-based Micron would leapfrog South Korea's Samsung Electronics to become the world's largest memory chip maker, and Hynix, currently ranked third, would drop out of the sector.

The deal gives the two companies and Hynix's creditors until April 30 to finalise a pact and it would then be subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

[Vigilant1]

Micron ranks up with Dell and Gateway as one America's largest PC manufacturers. Them also becoming the world's largest memory chip maker will make them an even bigger force in the tech market, and represents a reversal of the long-standing trend of control of the semiconductor market moving away from the US to foreign manufacturers.