SK Hynix to Acquire Intel Nand Memory Division
SK Hynix has received approval from the Chinese market regulator to acquire Intel’s NAND and SSD business. As a result, the company has obtained all necessary approvals from relevant competition authorities.
SK Hynix reports on its website that the State Administration for Market Regulation in China has recently approved the acquisition. This removes the last obstacle to the acquisition, Bloomberg also writes. Earlier this year, the company received the green light from authorities in South Korea, the United States, Taiwan, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Singapore. The European Commission also approved the acquisition earlier this year. The company previously indicated that it expected to have all the necessary commitments to complete the acquisition by the end of 2021.
The Chinese competition authority imposes certain conditions on the acquisition. For example, SK Hynix should not charge unreasonable prices for PCIe and SATA enterprise SSDs in the Chinese market. SK Hynix must also continue to expand its production of PCIe and SATA SSDs in the five years after the acquisition is officially completed. In addition, SK Hynix must continue to supply all products to China and must not force Chinese customers to purchase products exclusively from the company. The company is also prohibited from entering into deals with competitors in China that would exclude or restrict competition.
The acquisition by SK Hynix is worth $9 billion. It is the largest acquisition the memory manufacturer has made to date. The company will pay the first $7 billion by the end of this year, giving it Intel’s SSD division and China’s Dalian nand memory manufacturing facility. The remaining $2 billion will follow in 2025, for intellectual property related to the production and design of nandflash wafers and for the transfer of personnel. The acquisition will make SK Hynix the second largest producer of nand memory. Samsung, also a South Korean company, remains the largest nand memory manufacturer.