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Updated Wednesday, February 22, 2012 0:03 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Micron sets sights on 10% stake of Nanya's Inotera Memories

DRAM maker Nanya Technology Corporation (NTC, 南亞科技) is expected to approve today a private equity deal which analysts say will cede its role as majority stockholder in its subsidiary Inotera Memories (華亞科), an OEM DRAM maker, to the Boise, Idaho-based technology company Micron, and might further erode Taiwan's influence on the global DRAM market.

Micron is expected to scoop up the extra 10-percent stake in the company at an extraordinary shareholders' session today, paying up to NT$5 billion for a package that may include both common stocks and convertible corporate debentures.

After the deal, Micron will hold a 40-percent stake in the company, while Nanya's equity in the firm will shrink to less than 30 percent.

The Nanya-Micron deal, if approved, will be the second such deal after the recent acquisition of a controlling stake in Rexchip Electronics Corp. (瑞晶) by Japan's Elpida (爾必達) from the hands of its Taiwan business partner Powerchip Technology Corporation (力晶科技股份有限公司).

A silver lining in the impending Inotera deal, however, would be that Micron might introduce its NAND Flash technology to try and stem Inotera's losses and turn the company into a money-making proposition.

Commenting on the company's imminent handover of its controlling stake in Inotera, a Nanya official who spoke on condition of anonymity said yesterday his company is now less dependent on Inotera for PC DRAM supplies because it has been trying aggressively to get a large piece of the action in the mobile memory market in recent years.

Nanya's technological cooperation with Micron, now in its 10th year, and Inotera's management team, will remain unchanged, the official said, adding the deal will be beneficial to Nanya, Micron, and Inoteral.

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