Apple Primed to Devour Key Japanese Chipmaker

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Apple is considering a buyout of a division of Renesas Electronics that specializes in display chips for smartphones. The buyout would give Apple engineering expertise to help improve the iPhone’s display “sharpness and battery life,” according to Japanese business site Nikkei.

Apple already orders all of its liquid crystal display chips from Renesas, and the Japanese company is responsible for powering about a third of the world’s small to midsize LCDs. Instead of using the chip division of Renesas like an outside contractor, Apple wants to bring it in-house.

The move would be one that is very characteristic of Apple. Since Apple specializes in building hardware and software that work together closely, completely owning how the iPhone’s display chip is made will only benefit the engineering process going forward.

The figure Apple would pay is around $479 million for the division’s 240 employees. Renesas has been recently looking to sell its chip plant, and Sony considered buying it late last year.

Source: Nikkei

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