China finally greenlights SK hynix’s buyout of Intel NAND biz

SK hynix and Intel logos (Each company)

Chinese authorities have finally approved SK hynix’s acquisition of Intel’s NAND and SSD business, the company said Wednesday.

Though SK hynix and Intel signed the $9 billion deal in October last year, it has been waiting for approval from China for more than a year due to tensions with the US.

In the chip industry, to prevent one company from dominating the market, mergers and acquisitions require antitrust approval from the US, the European Union, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, the UK, Singapore and China.

The approval will allow South Korea’s largest chipmaker to further bolster its NAND business, which ranks fifth in the global market. After finalizing the deal, SK hynix is expected to climb to second place. Through the acquisition, SK hynix is set to diversify its business portfolio, which is heavily dependent on DRAM.

NAND is a type of storage technology that stores data permanently inside hard drives, whereas DRAM retains data temporarily when power is on and loses the data when power is out.


By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)