SK Hynix drops bid for Elpida; Micron likely winner

The South Korean chipmaker decided to pull out of the bidding as 'the deal would not strategically benefit the company', reports Reuters; citing SK Group's Chairman Chey Tae-won. Details as to why where not given.

In the final round of bidding that closed on Friday, U.S. chipmaker Micron offered around 200 billion yen (USD 2.5 billion) and pledged to keep the company's main Hiroshima plant and employees, NHK reported without citing sources.

Elpida is the world's No.3 maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, behind Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in February with 448 billion yen (USD 5.6 billion) in liabilities. Elpida's Chief Executive Yukio Sakamoto and lawyer Nobuaki Kobayashi have been appointed by the Tokyo district court to oversee the auction.