NEC Electronics Corp. and Renesas Technology Corp. agreed Monday to merge in a deal that may create Japan's largest chip maker.
The terms including ownership ratio should be agreed by the end of July and the transaction completed by next April, the companies said Monday. The chip unit of NEC Corp. and Renesas, the Tokyo-based venture between Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., made the announcement in a joint statement with their parents.
"Nothing has been decided but because of NEC Electronics' listed status, it's likely that it will be the surviving company," NEC President Kaoru Yano told reporters in Tokyo. "We don't look at it as one company absorbing another."