Renesas rumours: Semi seeks $1.3bn stimulus, stiffs 12,000
Chip giant ducks mass redundancies claims
Down-on-its-luck semiconductor biz Renesas Electronics announced today the first step of a rumoured restructuring plan that's believed to include 12,000 job cuts.
Reports over the weekend suggested that Renesas could axe employees and look for a helping hand of up to ¥100bn ($1.3bn, £803m). The Japanese microcontroller maker is expected to turn to main stockholders including Hitachi, Mitsubishi and NEC to fill the coffers, as well as private equity firms.
Renesas refused to confirm or deny the cuts and financing round, but did announce a new deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company: TSMC will now make 40nm process microchips, as well as 90nm ones, for Renesas.
"There were media reports regarding personnel reduction, which were published in certain media," a spokesman stated. "The reports were not based on Renesas' announcement and they cannot be confirmed or regarded as fact at this time."
Japanese chipmakers are having a rough time trying to compete with their Asian rivals. Elpida Memory has already bitten the dust and filed for bankruptcy in February this year.
US company Micron Technologies is now in talks to pick over Elpida's remains, but other memory-makers pulled out of the bidding, leaving the possibility of a white knight to rescue Renesas more uncertain.
Shares in Renesas, which is the world's fifth largest chip biz and churns out ASICs to MOSFETs, fell nearly 11 per cent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ahead of the TSMC announcement as the rumours freaked out investors. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Not suprised...
The parametric search page I'm looking at on Renesas' site lists CAN controllers... the one having trouble might be you..
Re: Not surprised...
Faced with the phrase "Please select a product" and a selection box showing "MPU/MCU" followed by a number of other selectors why would I click on a very small link marked "Search for other products". I don't want other products - I want "MPU/MCU". No way it clear that this link will open up a full selection guide.
Microchip - big link "Product selection tools". NXP - select a family, there's a tab marked "Parametric search".
I have an excellent book on web design called "Don't make me think" - the authors first rule. Another of his rules is to make ir clear what someything does. If it's not obvious, you will lose customers.
With apologies to Renesas for not persevering, I rest my case.
Re: Not surprised...
The basic options on the Renesas.eu homepage are limited by space, but clicking "Search for other products" opens the Parametric Search page with the MCU category selected.
Now click "Show More Parameters", this will expand the available options to show all the CAN (bottom of centre column) and ADC peripherals. There's a few seconds delay when changing options as it recalculates all the other possibilities. Hopefully this will help you narrow down the wide selection to something that fits your requirements.
Not suprised...
I'm choosing a microcontroller for a new project. Looked at the Renesas website - lousy intercative selector guide. I can't select what serial ports are available (I want CAN), nor if the device has ADC inputs. Gave up as I couldn't be a***d to trawl through the entire range looking for something that matched my requirements. ST, NXP and Microchip all let me see relevant devices within seconds. No wonder Renesas are in trouble.
Re: Not suprised...
Well, if the website was RESTful you could have included the URL so he could replicate your results easily...
However, I actually agree that ease-of-use of the website should be a significant criterion for a company that deals directly with lots of consumers. I doubt that applies to Renesas, but I counted it as a major point against ASUS and a somewhat significant point against Huawei. In Huawei's case, I did decide to take the chance partly because they mostly don't deal with consumers, so the weakness of their website isn't really a sign of poor priorities. Mostly the smartphone (Honor) has been satisfactory, except for sometimes falling off the network and needing a reboot.
In contrast, the HTC website is quite uneven. Parts are good, and other parts are terrible. I used one of their smartphones for over a year, but they fell WAY short of the high expectations they were apparently trying to create.
Now take the Microsoft website. PLEASE.
