The fight for the flash memory market is heating up.
Japan’s Toshiba Corp., which operates in the U.S. through Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. in Irvine, recently said it plans to up spending on chip production 28% to $2.45 billion for the 12 months through March.
The goal: grab more sales of flash memory used in consumer electronics.
The move stands
to triple production at a plant Toshiba
runs with Sunnyvale-based SanDisk Corp.
This is the most Toshiba has spent on chip production in one year.
“Toshiba will meet this growing demand with proactive in-vestments in production capacity,” the company said.
The move is designed to shore up Toshiba’s shrinking market share as South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor Inc. excels.
Toshiba’s worldwide market share fell to 19% in the fourth quarter from 23% in the third quarter, according to iSuppli Corp. in El Segundo.
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Toshiba flash card: company has 19% of market |
Toshiba held on to the No. 2 spot in the market.
But Hynix expanded its market share from 13% to nearly 17% during the quarter. Hynix went from No. 4 to No. 3 last year.
The No. 1 player, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co., saw its market share hold steady at about 50%.
Hynix is credited with responding more quickly to the growing demand for flash memory.
Flash goes into some of the sexiest consumer gadgets, including digital music players, cameras and wireless phones.
ISuppli estimates flash sales could grow 55% this year.
“The rapid sales gains at Hynix have set the stage for a fierce (flash) market share battle with Toshiba in 2006,” iSuppli analysts said in a report. “This battle promises to be riveting.”
Toshiba has expressed displeasure with Hynix on one front,intellectual property.
In 2004, Toshiba filed a complaint against Hynix in federal court in Texas.
The complaint claimed Hynix infringed on four Toshiba patents for flash memory.
The company reportedly filed a similar case in Japan.
The focus on flash is driving up prices for older computer memory chips as fewer plants churn out dynamic random access memory.
Samsung and Hynix said they raised prices on their biggest customers in February amid a shortage, according to a report in Bloomberg.
Hynix raised February contract prices 5% to 10%.
Viacore’s Value
An Irvine upstart got bought out by an old technology company.
IBM Corp. has picked up Irvine’s Viacore Inc. for undisclosed terms, the companies recently said.
Viacore is a well-funded company that offers software and services for supply chain Web sites. Companies use Viacore’s offerings to work with suppliers and track inventory and parts.
The company has worked with IBM to integrate supply chain Web sites. Viacore has had “a collaborative sales and marketing relationship” with Big Blue, Viacore Chief Executive Fadi Chehad & #233; said in a statement.
Viacore landed more than $40 million in venture funding back in 2001 from Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Intel Corp. It was one of the biggest investments of 2001 for any Orange County company.
The acquisition expands IBM’s capabilities in the $23.5 billion market for supply chain management services.
Viacore counts an estimated $15 million in yearly sales and about 30 workers.
The company’s customers include Cisco Systems Inc. and Gap Inc.
Ex-Conexant Boss Named Director
Armando Geday, the former chief executive of Conexant Systems Inc. of Newport Beach, has landed on the board of a South Korean chip company.
MagnaChip Semiconductor, a chipmaker targeting the consumer market, said earlier this month that Geday had joined its board. MagnaChip was formed in 2004 to acquire the non-memory operations of Hynix.
In 2004, Conexant bought Red Bank, N.J.-based GlobespanVirata Inc. and shifted its headquarters to New Jersey for a time. As part of the deal, Geday,a former Conexant executive and chief officer of Globespan,took over the combined company.
Conexant’s Dwight Decker stepped down as chief executive and remained chairman.
But the company floundered under Geday, hampered by market forces and integration woes.
The company moved back to Newport Beach later that year after Decker reassumed the chief executive’s slot in a bid to turn around the company. So far, Decker’s plan is ahead of schedule.
Powerwave Unloads Plant
Powerwave Technologies Inc. has sold off its plant in the Philippines.
The Santa Ana maker of wireless phone tower gear sold the plant to Toronto-based Celestica Inc. for $19 million.
As part of the deal, Celestica and Powerwave entered into a multiyear supply pact in which Celestica becomes Powerwave’s “preferred outsourcing partner.”
The facility’s 600 workers will become part of Celestica. The transaction is expected to close in March.
The plant was picked up as part of Powerwave’s acquisition of Del Mar-based Remec Inc. in September.
