Japanese chipmaker Renesas cuts 12,000 jobs and sells units
JAPANESE chipmaker Renesas Electronics plans to sell off loss-making operations and cut its payroll by at least 12,000, a source close to the matter said over the weekend, as the company battles high costs and nimbler foreign rivals.
Sources also confirmed that Renesas, the world’s largest maker of microcontroller chips for cars, aims to raise more than ¥100bn (£799m) to pay for restructuring costs and will take the plan to Hitachi and its other major shareholders as early as next week.
Renesas has posted cumulative net losses of nearly $6bn over the past seven years as it struggles to keep up with South Korea’s Samsung and others in an expensive race to build ever smaller and faster chips.
Hobbled by a strong yen and forced to close eight of its factories after natural disasters in Japan and Thailand last year, Renesas has said it would hammer out a restructuring scheme by July.