Oki to sell chipmaking business

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Oki Electric Industry Co will sell its sluggish semiconductor operations, it was learned on Wednesday. Oki is in talks with Rohm Co, a mid-size chipmaker based in Kyoto, over possible sale of the business, informed sources said.

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For fiscal 2007 that ended in March, Oki’s chip division, which ranks 13th in Japan, earned an operating profit of 3.8 billion yen on sales of 138.2 billion yen. On a consolidated basis, Oki incurred a recurring loss for the second straight year.

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For the year, Rohm saw its group operating profit fall 3.1% from the previous year to 67.3 billion yen on sales of 373.4 billion yen, down 5.5%, due to the yen’s appreciation and a U.S. economic slowdown.

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Rohm, which has so far benefited from robust demand for chips for flat-panel television sets, game machines and mobile phones, faces a fall in profitability as product prices drop amid fierce competition.

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