More recently, we have given a rather sad , which revealed that 10 semiconductor factories have closed in the past 100 years. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is the difficulty of financially providing factories for those companies that are not included in the list of largest manufacturers. Being just big is no longer enough to own your own factories.
The other day from their own semiconductor factories South Korean company MagnaChip Semiconductor. It is one of the largest independent developers and manufacturers of drivers (electronic interface circuits) for OLED displays, controllers for mass power management (PMICs), and power discrete and integrated semiconductors. It would seem, live and prosper! But no. The company is forced to transfer plant management to "effective managers".
It is interesting to recall that MagnaChip was formed in 2004. This is a spin-off of SK Hynix's semiconductor business, which was not directly related to the production of computer memory. SK Hynix (then simply Hynix) began a business reorganization in 1997 and was completely restructured by 2005. MagnaChip is owned by investment funds Citigroup Venture Capital (CVC) Equity Partners, LP, CVC Asia Pacific Ltd. Citigroup Venture Capital and Francisco Partners. Hynix received $864,3 million for the business. For that time, this was a lot of money.
Today's reorganization involves the transfer of semiconductor factories to other investment funds - SPC and its general partners in the form of Alchemist Capital Partners and Credian Partners, as well as Hynix and the Korea Federation of Credit Cooperatives. Hynix, as we can see, has partially regained control of its former business.
SPC will have two MagnaChip factories, Fab 3 and Fab 4, both for processing 200 mm silicon wafers, one for power semiconductors and one for drivers. 1,5 thousand employees of the company will go to work in SPC. In return, MagnaChip will transfer $90 million to SPC accounts for various benefits. As a factoryless developer, MagnaChip will continue to develop power components for electric vehicles, smartphones, other electronics, and drivers for OLEDs and future MicroLEDs.
Source: 3dnews.ru