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China's Inspur takes over Qimonda R&D center

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-13 15:37

Inspur Group, the founder of China's computer server industry, said Wednesday it had acquired the research and development (R&D) center of insolvent German chipmaker Qimonda in Xi'an, home of the famous terracotta warriors.

The acquisition cost Inspur 30 million yuan ($4.39 million). In return, Inspur will take charge of the center which will also have a new name, Xi'an SinoChip Semiconductors Ltd.

Inspur Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sun Pishu said the company, which specializes in integrated circuit design, would provide great support for Inspur and make it "better equipped" for future ventures into integrated circuit manufacturing.

"China's IT industry is not competitive in the global area. A key reason for this is the lack of R&D. Inspur hopes to break the impasse by taking advantage of R&D resources and improving its capability in independent research and development," Sun said.

An Inspur spokesman said the acquisition would not cause any job losses.

The center will join Inspur's other R&D facilities, including its high-performance server and storage technology laboratory and integrated circuit design center, to constitute the group's R&D nerve center, Sun said.

Related readings:  China's Inspur says approached Qimonda among others  China's Inspur ends talks to buy Qimonda

The build-up in R&D resources aimed not only to sharpen Inspur's competitiveness in hardware production, especially servers and storage, but also to pave the way for the group into integrated circuit manufacturing, he said.

To beef up competitiveness in integrated circuitry, Sun said Inspur planned to invest more than 100 million yuan in upgrading existing R&D facilities and implementing mergers and acquisitions at home and abroad.

Inspur Group, with its headquarters in Jinan, capital of Shandong province, is the largest server solutions supplier and server manufacturer in China.

Inspur raked in 23.2 billion yuan in sales income in 2008, up 20 percent from a year earlier.

Despite the global economic slowdown, the company maintained a similar sales growth rate during the first half of this year.

Munich-based Qimonda owned five R&D centers around the world. Its Chinese arm targeted global markets and is the only R&D center on the Chinese mainland capable of developing 46-nanomenter dynamic random access memory chips.