Elpida Memory has asked about 10 of its client companies for US$500 million in financial assistance to boost its cash on hand as it struggles with the yen's strength and a fall in memory chip prices, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported in its Thursday morning edition.

Elpida Memory fell in Tokyo trading after the Asahi newspaper said it may seek a delay in repaying public funds.

Micron Technology has posted a net loss of US$187 million, or US$0.19 per diluted share, on net sales of US$2.1 billion for the company's first quarter of fiscal 2012 (ended December 1, 2011).

Elpida and Nanya would discuss proposals including the creation of a holding company under which the two DRAM makers would operate, the paper said.

Hynix Semiconductor has set around KRW4 trillion (US$3.5 billion) for its 2012 capital expenditure, up 18% from the KRW3.4 trillion set for this year, an online news provider Edaily reported Thursday, citing industry sources.

Apple's iPad is the bane of computer-memory makers, worsening the industry's losses as consumers choose the hand-held device that uses about 75% fewer of the chips than a typical laptop.

SK Telecom has agreed to pay KRW3.4 trillion (US$3.1 billion) for 21% of Hynix Semiconductor.

Samsung Electronics plans to invest a record KRW38 trillion (US$34 billion) in 2012, sharply up from around KRW30 trillion this year, local online news provider Edaily reported Wednesday, citing unnamed industry sources.

SK Telecom has submitted a bid to buy 20% of Hynix Semiconductor amid a criminal investigation into whether the group's founding family misused funds.

Samsung Electronics' president expects Thailand floods to further hit the computer memory chip market by hurting PC production until the first quarter of 2012.

Viking Technology has launched the ArxCis-NVTM DRAM memory module, which the company said can automatically detect I/O interrupts and back up data to NAND flash prior to an outage.

Micron Technology fell in US trading after reporting a fiscal fourth-quarter loss on weak demand for personal computers.

Samsung Electronics doesn't expect "a drastic rebound" in prices for DRAM used in PCs, Kwon Oh Hyun, head of the company's chip division, said in an e-mail.

The South Korean shipbuilding and shipping group dropped out amid global economic uncertainties and concerns over investments needed to keep the chipmaker competitive, STX said in a statement.

The pressure in the DRAM business today is "untenable for a number of players," with something needing to happen to the struggling Asian memory makers within the next couple of quarters, Micron CEO Steve Appleton was quoted as saying.

A Wall Street analyst has predicted that Intel may acquire Micron Technology as the move would diversify its product offerings.

Samsung Electronics CEO Choi Gee-sung said on July 26 that the firm has no plans to revise down its capex for the second half and that its bread-and-butter memory chip business would get additional investment this year.

Korea Exchange Bank said in a statement that STX and SK Telecom, which both submitted their initial interest in a combined 15% stake, began six weeks of due diligence from Monday.

"Demand growth is likely to be weaker than usual in the third quarter, as customers are delaying purchases due to slow global economic growth," Hynix said.

"What foundries are seeing more and more, and what we're seeing overall, is a very tight linkage to consumer demand. All of us are disappointed with demand for PCs this year, and tablets probably will be 20 million units short of what people thought was possible for the year..."

Elpida Memory plans to issue new shares to raise capital, a person familiar with the matter said, without specifying the amount of the equity financing.

Applied Materials has announced a trio of new systems designed to boost performance in the next generations of DRAM chips. These innovative systems overcome key challenges in fabricating the transistor and contact areas of memory chips.

Hyundai Heavy has announced it was dropping plans for a takeover of Hynix Semiconductor.

Micron executives' comments about limited visibility of consumer PC demand and higher-than-ideal inventories of DRAM chips sparked a Friday sell-off in stocks linked to personal computers.

Micron Technology has announced net profits for the quarter ended June 2 were US$75 million, down from the US$939 million posted a year ago.

Rambus played dirty in the market for PC memory chips and blames its competitors for the consequences of its own failed technology, lawyers for Hynix Semiconductor and Micron Technology said in court.

Mosaid Technologies has commenced patent infringement litigation against Elpida Memory of Japan. Two other companies, Buffalo and Axiontech, are also named as defendants in the suit.

A trial over Rambus' antitrust lawsuit against Micron Technology and Hynix Semiconductor claiming US$4.3 billion in alleged damages was scheduled for June 7.

Hynix Semiconductor has developed 2Gb DDR4 DRAM and DDR4 DRAM-based 2GB ECC-SODIMM applying its 30nm-class process technology. Hynix plans to start volume production of this high performance DDR4 product in the second half of 2012.

Its top shareholders have sought to sell their stake worth about US$2.6 billion, but failed to find interested investors for a company that requires heavy capital investment to weather the highly volatile memory chip cycle.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has announced a broad spectrum of ongoing standards development work related to 3D-ICs.

Rambus has renewed its patent license agreement with Toshiba. This five year agreement covers Toshiba's products with DRAM memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and other DRAM devices. Rambus will receive royalty payments based on the shipment of these memory controllers.

Hynix Semiconductor, Micron Technology and Nanya Technology have asked a federal judge in California to delay a patent-infringement trial scheduled for May 2 over claims brought by Rambus.

Micron Technology has acquired Canon's interest in Tech Semiconductor Singapore for about US$121 million, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Micron also seems to be taking the lead in its joint venture with Intel.

ProMOS has been negotiating with the Taiwan authorities and banks to improve its financial standing, a precondition for the firm to join the Elpida-Powerchip business integration.

The memory-chip industry will keep a lid on capital expenditures this year, helping avoid a repeat of the production glut that plagued the industry until 2010, Micron Technology CEO Steve Appleton said.

"A fall in DRAM prices, the appreciation of the yen, and inventory valuation losses resulted in a 26.9 billion yen operating loss," said CFO Yasuo Shirai. Elpida shares closed 0.24% higher in Tokyo trade ahead of the earnings announcement on February 2.

When a final agreement is reached, Powerchip will phase out the sales of own branded DRAMs and Elpida will purchase all PC DRAMs from Powerchip to sell them as its own branded products. Powerchip currently has 80,000 wafers per month capacity for commodity DRAM production.

"DRAM prices were previously expected to rebound from the second quarter of the year, but that may be brought forward to the first quarter," Kwon Oh-hyun said at an industry event.