A merged NEC/Renesas business would potentially be ranked as the world's number three chip supplier behind Intel and Samsung.
Consequently, it would become, at a stroke, one of the distribution channel's most sort-after lines.
But who would carry it? Well, it is a safe bet that the line would be carried by some, if not all, the existing NEC and Renesas distributors.
In the UK market that means Arrow, Avnet Silica, Abacus, MSC and Sequoia for Renesas.
While NEC's long list of UK distributors includes Arrow, Avnet Memec, Future, Gleichmann-Sunrise and Rutronik.
NEC also has some specialists such as RDS for displays, Castle Microwave and Richardson.
One issue I see is: would Avnet decide to go with Silica, Memec and Abacus for the merged line or would it drop one or even two of these?
My guess is that they would keep the merged line in two of the three, but which would lose it?
All this could be wrapped up in what Avnet eventually does with the broadline Abacus business it acquired earlier this year.
Similarly, will MSC and Gleichmann both carry the merged line in the UK? Probably yes.
MSC has a strong claim on the Renesas microcontroller business. Equally, NEC has relied on Gleichmann-Sunrise as a key UK distributor for a number of years.
It would be difficult and probably inadvisable to cut the NEC/Renesas name from either linecard.
Ah, and what would a merged group be called? Not Renec or NESAS, surely.
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