Japan's Elpida Memory is in talks to merge with U.S. firm Micron Technology and Taiwan's Nanya Technology, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Tuesday, as the memory chip makers battle a weak market and well-funded South Korean rivals.Elpida, Japan's last remaining player in the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) market, also faces a debt repayment crunch in late March and early April that has stirred market worries and sent its shares tumbling to a record low earlier this month.Elpida said in a statement it would not comment on rumours and speculation. An Elpida spokesman added that some parts of the Yomiuri report were wrong but declined to be more specific.Elpida shares rose as much as 6 percent to 373 yen after the report and have gained more than 25 percent from their all-time low of 297 yen, as media reports in recent weeks of talks with potential partners including Micron, Nanya and Toshiba Corp boosted confidence that the company would be able to put together a rescue plan.
Micron Technology, Inc. is a manufacturer and marketer of semiconductor devices, principally dynamic random access memory (DRAM), Nandi Flash memory (NAND Flash and NOR Flash memory, as well as other innovative memory technologies, packaging solutions and semiconductor systems for use in leading-edge computing, consumer, networking, embedded and mobile products. Shares of MU traded higher by 1.35% or $0.105/share to $7.86. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $3.97 and as high as $11.95. On average, 32200400 shares of MU exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 33185408.
Source
