TDK to buy Renesas Semiconductor Manufacturing’s Tsuruoka factory

The three companies target to conclude a definitive agreement on the transfer by the end of February 2016, and are currently negotiating the details, including the handover date and the transfer (reemployment) of personnel currently employed at the Tsuruoka Factory. Back in August, 2013, Renesas Electronics indicated its intentions for the Tsuruoka Factory (then the 5-inch front-end wafer fabrication line of Renesas Yamagata Semiconductor Co., Ltd’s Tsuruoka Higashi Factory) as “planned to be closed in 2 or 3 years,” and plans were proceeding to close the factory by the end of the current fiscal year. TDK, for its part, has identified the electronic components business based on magnetic materials technology as a core business. It considers its three priority markets to be the ICT market, which encompasses products such as smartphones that continue to be increasingly popular worldwide; the automotive market, which includes hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles; and the industrial equipment/energy market, which covers applications such as wind power generation and solar power generation. TDK is intensely focused on efforts to expand these businesses and their profitability through a concentration on the electronic components business targeted at these three markets. However, TDK approached Renesas and Renesas Semiconductor Manufacturing in early October of this year with a view of acquiring the Tsuruoka Factory. The three parties were able to come to a meeting of minds, and as a result, a basic agreement regarding transfer of the Tsuruoka Factory was concluded. Negotiations on detailed conditions will continue with the aim of concluding a definitive agreement at a future date.