(Bloomberg) — Chinese regulators have green-lit SK Hynix Inc.’s $9 billion acquisition of Intel Corp.’s Nand storage unit, clearing the way for a merger intended to shore up the Asian chipmaker’s position in the booming memory market.
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The State Administration of Market Regulation has granted approval for the deal, the antitrust agency said in a statement on its website. Hynix had earlier secured permission from U.S. and European watchdog agencies, and China’s nod was the final hurdle to the Korean company’s largest-ever acquisition. China’s watchdog however stipulated a number of conditions, from ensuring Hynix pricing and supplies to “helping a third party break into” the computer and server solid-state storage market.
Hynix aims to cement its position as the largest producer of Nand memory, used in servers and smartphones, after Samsung Electronics Co. Both companies are investing billions in expanding capacity and upgrading technology, betting that a migration to higher-speed networking and connected devices will translate into exponential demand growth. Meanwhile, Intel gains funds to invest in its faster-growing logic businesses.
Hynix will pay $7 billion in the deal’s first phase and the rest by March 2025. It’s set to take over Intel’s facility in Dalian, China, boosting its market share of flash memory components to more than 20%, research firm TrendForce has estimated. Hynix plans to more than triple its flash-memory revenue over five years through the acquisition, Chief Executive Officer Lee Seok-hee said last year.
“SK Hynix will enhance its competitiveness of NAND Flash and SSD business by continuing the remaining post-merger integration process,” the Korean company said in a statement.
(Updates with conditions from the second paragraph)
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