On May 27, Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced that it had approved SK Hynix's acquisition of Intel NAND Flash Business.
The business combination between the two companies is expected to be completed within this year as the Korean authorities approve it following the U.S. and EU.
The KFTC announced, "As a result of reviewing the relevant business combination issue, we quickly approved it on May 26, judging that there are less concerns about competition restrictions in the related markets."
On this day, the KFTC also approved the merger of U.S. semiconductor manufacturer AMD's Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) company Xilinx.
In October last year, SK Hynix signed a contract to transfer Intel's NAND flash memory and SSD business for $9 billion and reported a business combination to KFTC in January.
With this approval, it seems that SK Hynix will be able to strengthen its competitiveness by strengthening its NAND flash business, which is sluggish compared to its flagship DRAM. In the meantime, Intel also closes its non-mainstream business, which accounts for less than 10% of its total sales.
"The two companies' total share in the NAND flash and SSD markets is not high at 13-27% and Samsung, which has more than 30% of shares, exists," said KFTC. "Major competitors produce both NAND flash and SSD, so there are sufficient alternative trading lines."
"Subcontractors that produce only one product also have sufficient alternative trading lines," added KFTC.
The business combination between the two companies will be completed only when all eight competitors, including the U.S., Europe and South Korea, pass the screening process.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved the combination of the two companies in late last year and March this year, respectively. The EU's European Commission (EC) also decided to grant unconditional approval on May 21.
Industries believe that the UK, Brazil, Singapore, and Taiwan will not raise questions about SK Hynix's acquisition of Intel NAND business because there is no concern about market monopoly.
However, China, which has been in conflict with the U.S., has not been approved for mergers and acquisitions by U.S. semiconductor companies.
