NEC Corp and Hitachi Ltd have agreed to merge their memory chip operations by the spring of 2001, according to Japanese press reports quoting sources close to the deal. The two have decided extensive collaboration in areas including production is essential to cope in the global market, the sources were quoted as saying. Last June. they announced an agreement to cooperated in the design and development of next-generation 1GB dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.
The new DRAM accord will be signed by NEC President Koji Nishigaki and Hitachi President Etsuhiko Shoyama later this month, the sources said, and a new company to handle design, development and marketing of next-generation chips will be established by the end of this year. The new firm will begin operations in April.
