LONDON, UK: Renesas Electronics Corp., a new chip company, has been formed as a result of the merger between NEC Electronics Corp. and Renesas Technology Corp. The merger places Renesas in the third or fourth position among the largest chip companies in the world with an annual sales figure of around $10 million and almost equals Toshiba in size.

The company, after expansion, is claiming to be the world’s top manufacturer of microcontrollers as well as the leader in supplying advanced SoC chips and a varied range of analog and power devices. The company now has over 47,000 employees working in its facilities.

The company’s ranking among top chip companies may vary based on the period of the survey as well the people who are in charge of the survey. An iSupply  Corp survey, taken during November 2009, shows that Renesas Technology had 2009 sales amounting to $5,664 million and NEC’s 2009 sales amounted to $4,403 million. So, their total sales added up to $10.067 million which was lesser than Toshiba’s 2009 sales figure of $10,640 million. However, Gartner’s recent estimation of Toshiba’s 2009 sales figure was at $9,604 million, which places Renesas in the third spot.

Junshi Yamaguchi was appointed the Chairman of the company and Yasushi Akao was named President of the Board of Directors as the Renesas Electronics Corp. started its business operations on April 1. Renesas Technology was itself formed seven years ago as a result of a merger between the semiconductor operations of Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corp.

Renesas Electronics had already raised 134.6 billion yen (around $1.4 billion) by distributing shares of its common stock to Hitachi, NEC Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric. The merger along with the distribution of additional stock puts the ownership of the company at 33.97 per cent for NEC, 30.62 per cent for Hitachi, 20.05 per cent for Mitsubishi and 1.49 per cent for Japan Trustee Services Bank Ltd.