Korea’s Hynix Acquires LAMD to Strengthen Flash Memory Solutions

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South Korean memory semiconductor company SK Hynix Semiconductor Inc has announced its acquisition of California-based storage solutions company Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD) to increase its competitiveness in the NAND flash memory market. The amount and terms of the deal are not disclosed.

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Hynix, which produces SDRAM, DRAM and Flash is formerly known as Hyundai Electronics. They are the world’s second largest memory chipmaker and one of world’s largest semiconductor companies with manufacturing sites in China, South Korea, and the U.S. Hynix chips are used by various popular devices, such as the Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro, IBM System x servers, and a number of ASUS PC and notebooks, among others.

Hynix did not start this year well, reporting a loss of 271.2 billion won (US$ 235 million), and with sales dropping 14.5% year-on-year to 2.388 trillion won in the first quarter of 2012.

On the other hand, the eight year-old company LAMD is a leader in the development of semiconductor system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for the data storage market. Upon deal completion, the company will be part of the Hynix family as its business unit focusing on customized NAND based solutions.

With the mobile and cloud computing industries skyrocketing, smartphones, tablet computers, and embedded devices prefer flash memory rather than disk storage due to its light weight, higher speed and smaller shape.

Mixed signal processing and iterative data recovery technologies enable hard disk drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) OEMs to increase storage density and reduce the manufacturing costs. Controllers work with processors to significantly increase flash memory speed and reliability. And it will play its important role in wider range of data storage products.

President and CEO of SK Hynix Oh Chul Kwon highlighted the benefits of acquiring LAMD. “We expect our NAND Flash competitiveness will be further strengthened by the acquisition of LAMD which has extensive expertise in controller technology and excellent engineering resources. SK hynix will leverage this acquisition and continuously develop value-added NAND solutions and respond to our customers’ needs.”



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