14 DAY TRIAL // Micron and Elpida are usually known as rivals on the market for semiconductor products, but if certain reports are true the two might end up joining forces in order to compete with a certain other strong presence in the field.
Partnerships on the IT market can be seen as more or less just as common as lawsuits are for companies of opposing stances, like HP and Oracle.
The same cam be said about the number of rivalries that exist (Intel-AMD) or might soon come to be (HP and Acer on the enterprise market).
Turns out that marketing conditions used by some to fuel their competitiveness can act as a unifying factor for others.
In this case, it is Micron and Elpida that might joining forces, so that they may be better equipped to stand against Samsung, at least as far as DRAM goes (Samsung has controlled the largest stake in the DRAM industry for a while).
Elpida and Micron actually opened co-development talks back in 2008 and then, again, in 2009, both of which ended without agreements because of capital issues.
More recently, however, the two have been thinking of turning Inotera memories (Micron-Nanya joint venture) into a sort of subordinate to the possible partnership between Micron and Elpida.
Elpida might just buy some Inotera shares from Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), Nanya's and Inotera's parent company.
Should Elpida and Micron really reach a consensus at last, Taiwan-based DRAM companies might consolidate into some other form as well.
This turn of events may have been partially brought about by how the DRAM industry hasn't been doing too well over the past quarters, what with very low sales compared to demand and, thus, very low average selling prices that have not been making suppliers' and manufacturers' lives easier. What remains is to see if the situation recovers in a timely fashion.