An IPO by the Japanese memory maker has been anticipated for some time after the company’s management indicated it would seek an IPO in 2004, according to the Financial Times.
The listing follows the billion-dollar IPOs last year of several other large Japanese tech companies. In June 2003, printer manufacturer Seiko Epsom Corp raised roughly $1.12bn, and then in July, NEC Electronics Corp raised $1.32bn.
Elpida has been desperate for funds since it was formed in 1999 via the merger of NEC and Hitachi’s DRAM chip operations. The building or upgrading of production facilities for chips is an expensive process, and the company lacked the necessary funding for the expansion of its manufacturing capabilities.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
