Elpida has a bleak future. Shares of the company plunged 98 percent (from 250 to 5 yen) after the memory firm filed for bankruptcy protection. According to the Toyko Stock Exchange, Elipda will be delisted on March 28th.
On Monday, Elpida sought bankruptcy protection because it couldn't repay debts totaling 448 billion yen ($5.6 billion). It's not clear if the Japanese government will step in to help save the firm, as it has done with other troubled technology companies. At the moment, private bailout seems unlikely because Elpida has been exploring the possibility of an acquisition or partner for a while without any success.
Right now there's no incentive for anyone to save Elipda. Unlike NAND, the DRAM business is really slowing down. We've seen prices drop 40 percent over the past year, which means profit margins are razor thin. Combine falling prices with lower demand and you're looking at a bad situation.
It's a pity that this company is likely to go bust as it had a reputation for producing quality parts in the past. There was even a case six months back where some DRAM vendors were selling fake Elipda memory by using relabeled Samsung parts. Elpida likely won't be the last DRAM company to go belly up, but this is just another case where a mature market is going to whittle down the number of competitors.
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madooo12 really sorry, I wish the Japaneese governemnt helps themReply
It's really sad they may go bankcrupt -
eddieroolz I really wish Elpida would survive. I don't want to use low quality Hynix or Samsung memory in my devices.Reply -
ltdementhial eddieroolzI really wish Elpida would survive. I don't want to use low quality Hynix or Samsung memory in my devices.Reply
Really Hynix & samsung have lower quality than elpida? i tought that was a myth...i have used the 3 and i only find samsung a bit disturbing since i have repaired hundreds of thousands of laptops with faultys samsung ram's modules from many companies like Markvision,V-Data,innix,shikatronics,kingmax,Vickin, etc etc... xD -
erunion alidana prime example of more competition =/= goodReply
No, not really.
Too many global resources are devoted to dram production. Scaling back dram production (which may include the failure of some firms) frees up resources for other products.
Stasis is the opposite of progress. -
nebun this is the result of poor marketing....why did they build so much stock?....they should build as orders come in....sure it will take longer to complete the orders, but it ensures that the company will not overproduce...does this make senseReply -
killerb255 jprahmanNo, just a prime example of supply > demand.Reply
This.
I mean...how many average Joes need more than 8 GB of RAM? Some can argue that an average Joe doesn't need more than 4 GB of RAM, but of course there are applications that can use a lot of RAM (whether legitimately or illegitimately (bloat)), such as Firefox on a bad day.
Of course those of us that can find a use for all that RAM are loving it right now! Virtual machines galore! :)