Renesas Electronics

is a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, initially incorporated in 2002 as Renesas Technology, the consolidated entity of the semiconductor units of Hitachi and Mitsubishi excluding their dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) businesses, to which NEC Electronics merged in 2010, resulting in a minor change in the corporate name and logo to as it is now. In the 2000s to early 2010s, Renesas had been one of the six largest semiconductor companies in the world. As of 2022, it is the world's third-largest automotive semiconductor company and the largest microcontroller supplier. The company also has presences in the markets of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, memory devices, and SoCs. The brand Renesas is a contraction of "Renaissance Semiconductor for Advanced Solutions". Renesas Electronics started operation in April 2010, through the integration of NEC Electronics, established in November 2002 as a spin-off of the semiconductor operations of NEC with the exception of the DRAM business, and Renesas Technology established on April 1, 2003, the non-DRAM chip joint venture of Hitachi and Mitsubishi, with their ownership percentage of 55 and 45 in order. The DRAM businesses of the three had become part of Elpida Memory, which went bankrupt in 2012 before being acquired by Micron Technology. A basic agreement to merge was reached by April 2010 and materialized on the first day, forming the fourth largest semiconductor company by revenue according to an estimation from iSuppli. In December 2010, Renesas Mobile Corporation (RMC) was created by integrating the Mobile Multimedia Business Unit of Renesas with the acquired Nokia Wireless Modem Business Unit. In 2011, Renesas Electronics was adversely affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and flooding in Thailand. In 2012, the company, which had about 50 thousand employees of manufacturing, design and sales operations in about 20 countries in 2011, decided to restructure its business, including the sale and consolidation of its Japanese domestic plants, to become profitable.