Renesas announced semiconductor sales revenues of$9.8bn for the year to the end of March 2012.
Back in 2003,the first full year of Renesas'operations after the company was formed by merging the semiconductor operations of Hitachi and Mitsubishi,the company had revenues of$9bn and was the world's No.2 semiconductor supplier.
Since then Renesas has acquired NEC's semiconductor business,NEC Electronics which,before it was acquired by Renesas in 2010,had revenues just short of$6bn.Back in the 1980s,NEC had been the No.1 semiconductor company.
Renesas'operating loss for the financial year to end of March 2012 was$710m;its net loss was$790m.
Last year it was reported that Renesas,Panasonic and Fujitsu were talking about merging their semiconductor businesses.
"How many more times does 1 plus 1 have to equal a half before someone realises this might not be the right strategy?"commented Malcolm Penn,CEO of Future Horizons,at that time.
