S. Korean chipmaker SK hynix acquires Intel's memory-chip unit for US$ 9 bil.

SK하이닉스, 인텔 낸드사업부문 10조3천억원에 인수We start with the big business news of the day.SK Hynix is acquiring Intel's memory-chip unit for roughly nine billion U.S. dollars.The South Korean chipmaker says the acquisition will help it gain a competitive edge in the NAND memory market.Eum Ji-young has our top story.South Korea's second largest chipmaker SK hynix is buying U.S. tech giant Intel's memory chip unit for over nine billion U.S. dollars.SK hynix said on Tuesday that it has signed an all-cash deal which would make it the world's number two NAND flash chip manufacturer with around 20 percent of the market share.SK hynix's board of directors reportedly approved the deal on Tuesday morning.The deal includes Intel's solid state drive or SSD business and its production facility in Dalian, China, as well as its NAND memory chip products and wafer business.Intel however will be keeping its Optane chip division.The Intel memory chip unit makes NAND flash-memory products primarily used in devices such as hard drives, thumb drives and cameras.The U.S. semiconductor producer has been looking to get out of the business mainly due to sagging prices for flash memory, so it can focus on its core business of producing non-memory chips.The acquisition will happen in stages and the final takeover is expected to be completed in 2025.SK hynix has been prospering amid COVID-19 as online activity has skyrocketed.It was the fourth-largest NAND flash producer with an 11-point-7 percent market revenue share in the second quarter of 2020 according to market researcher TrendForce while Intel was ranked sixth with about 11-point-5 percent of market revenue share.SK hynix also is the world's second largest supplier in the DRAM business.Eum Ji-young Arirang News.