Major computer manufacturer Fujitsu Ltd. will acquire the design and development operations for advanced large-scale integration chips from major steelmaker NKK Corp., senior officials of the two companies announced Wednesday.
The two firms declined to comment on the size of the deal, saying details have yet to be worked out.
Fujitsu will set up a wholly owned subsidiary next month with 400 million yen in capital to receive the LSI business from NKK. The new firm is expected to start operating in October with about 70 employees.
"System LSIs are the core business of our electronic device division," said Kazunari Shirai, executive vice president of Fujitsu. "As demand for highly efficient LSIs increases with the expansion of mobile phones and network businesses, the shortage of engineers has created a bottleneck. This deal will allow us to acquire (human) resources."
NKK, meanwhile, will withdraw from making electronic devices to concentrate corporate resources on making steel, said NKK Vice President Wataru Fukazawa.
In the 1990s, NKK entered the semiconductor business as part of a revamping of corporate management and has been investing about 10 billion yen in the business each year.