The chipmakers plan to sign a final agreement in the “next few months” after reaching a preliminary accord, the two companies said in a statement through Business Wire yesterday. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Micron Chief Executive Officer Steve Appleton last month he may acquire rivals to gain ground in the US$28 billion computer memory chip market and diminish the company’s vulnerability to boom-and-bust cycles. Oversupply of chips forced Micron to report losses in 6 of the past 10 years.

Prices of the benchmark type of dynamic random access memory, which temporarily stores data to speed up computers, tumbled to a record low of US$1.87 on Dec. 21, according to Dramexchange Technology Inc., operator of Asia’s biggest spot market for chips. Taoyuan, Taiwan-based Nanya posted a record quarterly loss during the October-to-December period.

Nanya will spin off its old memory-chip factory in Taipei and install new equipment for the venture that will produce memory chips using Micron’s so-called “stack” technology, Taipei-based Digitimes reported yesterday, citing unidentified semiconductor equipment makers.

The Taiwanese chipmaker formed Inotera Memories Inc. with Munich, Germany-based Qimonda AG in 2003. Nanya spokesman Pai Pei-lin said the company has been producing memory chips using Qimonda’s “trench” technologies.

Taipei based Inotera will continue to make memory chips using Qimonda’s technologies, Inotera said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

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