BRUSSELS (05/04/2000) - The European Commission announced today that it has authorized the creation of a joint venture between Japan's Hitachi, Ltd. and NEC Corp. to merge the companies' DRAM (dynamic random access memory) facilities.
The joint venture, to be called NEC-Hitachi Memory Inc., will design and develop the next generation of DRAM for use as the memory of computing devices.
Due to the short life cycle of DRAM, the companies believe collaborating will accelerate research and development of the next generation of DRAM, according to a Commission statement.
During its investigation, the Commission determined that the new entity will face competition from other powerful suppliers of electronic components notably Siemens AG and Samsung Electronics. It therefore ruled that the venture was fully compatible with the EU single market.
Hitachi, based in Tokyo, is a global electronics company. NEC, also in Tokyo, manufactures and markets a full range of products from semiconductors to computers.
Hitachi, in Tokyo, can be reached at http://www.hitachi.co.jp/. NEC, in Tokyo, can be reached at http://www.nec.com/.