Stefan Mileschin

It looks like the Japanese chip industry is still in that special place in hell which is reserved for those who live out their lives with the flexibility of granite.

Renesas told the world+dog that it will post a $1.1 billion loss in the July-September quarter.

The problem was that the company had asked its employees if they wanted to leave if they had a good redundancy scheme. It looks like more workers saw the writing on the wall for the company and more of them volunteered than expected.

Renesas said about 7,500 employees volunteered to resign with compensation. The company only wanted 5,000 workers to go but it thinks that it will be better with its plants being manned by ghosts and tumbleweed.

It said that will save a lot of dosh in the long term thanks to all those workers falling on their swords. It did not tell Reuters how it will operate 2,500 workers short.

Renesas is one of the world's largest manufacturers of semiconductor systems for mobile phones and cars. It should be doing better. The company is considering selling, closing, or reducing production at 10 of 18 domestic plants in Japan.

http://news.techeye.net/chips/renesa...or-the-rennies