Sony have announced that they have spent approximately 35 billion yen ($342.32 million) to acquire a Japanese factory run by semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics.
Such an acquisition has been made to expand the company’s imaging business, although the plant, which is located in the city of Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture, also currently produced the eDRAM chip on behalf of Nintendo for their Wii U consoles.
Sony will spread the cost of such transaction across three years, initially spending 7.5 billion yen during the current fiscal year with the remaining 27.5 billion to be invested within the company’s 2014 and 2015 fiscal years.
Renesas had shared plans to close the plant as part of a restructuring plan last year, although Nintendo indicated that it “won’t have immediate effects on the production of the Wii U.”
After the acquisition is completed, the plant will now be known as the Yamagata Technology Center under Sony Semiconductor Corp., and will build CMOS image sensors for smartphones and tablets. It will also continue to make certain semiconductors “for a certain period of time,” after which Renesas will shift manufacturing to its Naka plant or end such production completely.
[Thanks Polygon]
Sony buys Wii U eDRAM manufacturing plant
