Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Renesas Electronics Corp. is considering shedding 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, or about 12 to 14 percent of its workforce of 42,000, sources said Tuesday.

The struggling chipmaker plans to carry out the cut mainly through voluntary retirement and attrition, the sources said.

The company may ask three major shareholders — Hitachi Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and NEC Corp. — for an additional investment of ¥50 billion to ¥100 billion to strengthen its financial base, the sources said.

The three companies appear reluctant to accept the request, according to the sources.

Renesas Electronics is considering realigning its 18 domestic production facilities by closing, consolidating or selling plants facilities to other companies, the sources said.

The company was born in April 2010 from the merger between Renesas Technology Corp., a joint venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric, and an NEC unit.

Renesas Electronics ranks second in domestic semiconductor sales after Toshiba Corp. and fifth in the global market.

The company posted a group net group loss last year of ¥62.6 billion due to the stagnant semiconductor market and the soaring yen.

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