Elpida has had to ask for a delay in repaying some of the $386m of public money it received to help it out earlier in the year.
Investors in the company are bailing out as the prospects for its survival become less hopeful.
As well as the $386m from the Japanese government, Elpida also got over $1.1bn from banks.
Elpida has some $3bn worth of debt coming due for repayment in 2012 and racked up losses of over $700m in the last six months.
The DRAM market in 2011 was hit by macro-economic worries, the move from PCs to tablets and the Thailand flooding affecting HDD supply.
It was estimated by Micron that the constrained supplies of HDDs led, by itself, to a 10-15% drop in demand for DRAM.
Earlier this month, Micron CEO Steve Appleton pointed up the weakness of some of his competitors as a possible sign that consolidation of the DRAM industry is underway.
"As they (competitors) continue to weaken, they're going to have to figure out what they're going to do," said Appleton, "and so I think that will drive some further consolidation. I think that's inevitable."