Panasonic selling chip-making biz to Taiwan

Osaka/Taipei — Panasonic is selling its loss-making semiconductor business to Taiwan’s Nuvoton Technology, leaving an industry that it first entered almost 70 years ago.

The sale will close a chapter in Japan’s transition from a chipmaking powerhouse with a nearly 50% global market share in 1990 to a supplier of equipment and materials to rising South Korean and Taiwanese players. (Nikkei)