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- <text id=90TT0261>
- <title>
- Jan. 29, 1990: Business Notes:Semiconductors
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Jan. 29, 1990 Who Is The NRA?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 63
- Business Notes
- SEMICONDUCTORS
- No Thanks, No Memories
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Even when the Government gives its blessing, U.S. microchip
- makers cannot bring themselves to collaborate. Their deep-down
- resistance to joint efforts came to the surface last week with
- the scuttling of U.S. Memories, a consortium formed seven months
- ago by American firms to compete in the Japanese-dominated
- market for memory chips. With such powerful backers as IBM and
- Digital Equipment, U.S. Memories planned to build a $1 billion
- plant to produce chips for everything from personal computers
- to missile-guidance systems. But a worldwide glut of memory
- chips, which has pushed prices lower, prompted many would-be
- investors to back out of the project.
- </p>
- <p> The collapse raised fresh doubts about the ability of U.S.
- companies to challenge Japanese chipmakers, who often seem to
- act in concert. As U.S. Memories faltered, major Japanese firms
- made a series of production cuts to strengthen chip prices and
- geared up to develop advanced new products.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
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