Following Memory Corp Plc’s gloomy interim results last week (CI No 2,998) you could be forgiven for believing the bottom had well and truly fallen out of the memory chip repair market. Falling prices have hit Memory Corp hard and the company now has only 12 months to get itself back into shape. But Newcastle, UK-based Syntaq Ltd, Memory’s only real competitor anywhere in the world, tells a different story. Admittedly, times were tough at the beginning of this year and Syntaq went through a loss-making period, said founder David Armstrong. The firm buys defective chips from Hyundai Electronics Co and other Korean and Japanese companies – Armstrong refused to specify which ones because Memory Corp always tries to find out what we do and copy. He did say that Syntaq is back on its feet and making profits. Discussions have continued with Hyundai to install Syntaq error correction technology on processors installed in its own personal computers (CI No 2,768), but no decision been made as yet. Armstrong declined to put a figure on the firm’s profits, but its revenue for last fiscal was about $35m – compared to Memory’s 87,000 pounds.
