Elpida may merge with Toshiba in a move pushed by the Japanese government.
A couple of weeks ago, Steve Appleton CEO of Micron, said that he expected further consolidation in the DRAM industry as a result of price and demand pressures.
Toshiba, once dominated the DRAM industry in a mid-80s tour de force which saw it supplying 1Mbit CMOS DRAMs for six months before anyone else could manufacture them. It made a huge amount of money.
Toshia than pulled out of the DRAM business when it became problematically profitable and focused on flash memory which it invented.
It is unlikely that Toshiba’s management wants to return to the DRAM business. But, under pressure from the Japanese government, it may.