Korea approves SK hynix's acquisition of Intel's NAND business
SK hynix's chip-making plant in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of SK hynixBy Baek Byung-yeulKorea approved SK hynix's planned acquisition of Intel's NAND flash business, deciding the acquisition won't hurt fair trade competition and isn't against antitrust issues.The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said Thursday its final approval of the planned acquisition is because it is unlikely to limit competition, as the combined market share of the two companies' NAND business is still lower than the No. 1 company Samsung Electronics. “With the acquisition, SK hynix will be able to strengthen its competitiveness in the memory semiconductor market by beefing up NAND flash, which has poor performance compared to its flagship DRAM business, and Intel will be able to clean up its non-mainstream business, which accounts for less than 10 percent of its total sales,” the FTC said.Last October, SK hynix reached an agreement to acquire Intel's NAND flash memory chip business for $9 billion. After the agreement, SK submitted applications for approval to antitrust regulators in other count
