China's Hony Capital plans to sell or outsource the operations at Elpida Memory's Hiroshima DRAM plant to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) if its bid for the bankrupt Japanese chipmaker is successful, the Nikkei business daily said on Tuesday. The scenario involving Hony, which is bidding along with fellow private equity firm TPG Capital, and China's top chipmaker, was drawn up by the Chinese government, the Nikkei said citing a banking source, and is one of a few being mentioned surrounding the takeover of Elpida.

Elpida Memory Inc.’s bankruptcy is fueling concern the company could be a burden to an acquirer, with shares of SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. declining on takeover speculation, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Investors aren’t keen on a full or partial takeover by Hynix or Micron because “they would need funds to buy Elpida’s assets, and even after an acquisition, they would need a lot of money to keep operations going,” said Yuichi Ishida, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co.

A few years ago, the densely built-up coastal region around this port was called Panel Bay because of its concentration of factories making the sophisticated flat-panel screens that were symbols of Japan’s manufacturing prowess. But now the area has become a grim symbol of its industrial decline, the International Herald Tribune reported.

For a bankrupt company, Elpida Memory Inc. is getting a lot of attention as the subject of a billion-dollar chess game among the biggest technology companies, Bloomberg reported. They don’t necessarily covet Elpida’s debt, workforce or even most of its business. They just want the part of its business that makes chips for Apple Inc.’s mobile devices -- and, even more, they want to make sure their competitors don’t get that. Elpida was Japan’s largest maker of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips.

Toshiba Corp. has been removed from the list of prospective sponsors to back the rehabilitation of elpida Memory Inc., it was learned Thursday, the Daily Yomiuri Online reported on a Jiji Press story. As a result, the Japanese chipmaker may be acquired by a foreign company. Micron Technology Inc. of the United States, SK Hynix Inc. of South Korea and a foreign-affiliated investment fund remain on the list of possible sponsors, informed sources said.

Japan's credibility as a future investment location could be hurt unless the government takes aggressive fiscal reforms decisively and swiftly, according to the new chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association, The Wall Street Journal reported. But the country's banks, among the biggest buyers of Japan's government bonds in recent years, aren't likely to face an immediate risk of the kind of sovereign debt crisis seen recently in Europe, said Yasuhiro Sato in a recent interview.

Toshiba Corp has decided to join the bidding race to sponsor Elpida Memory Inc's turnaround from bankruptcy, setting stage for a battle with U.S.-based Micron Technology, the Nikkei business daily said, Reuters reported. Toshiba, which believes adding Elpida's cell-phone-use DRAMs to its offerings is crucial for its survival in the chip industry, might seek financial assistance from the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan, the newspaper said. Elpida Memory will soon stop accepting applications for the first round of bidding, Nikkei said.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. requested 1 trillion yen ($12 billion) of public funds to avert collapse, paving the way for the government to take control of what once was the world’s biggest private utility, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The company known as Tepco also asked for 845.9 billion yen in extra aid from a government-backed fund to compensate people affected by the Fukushima disaster, President Toshio Nishizawa said at a news briefing today. The utility may face insolvency if its capital keeps falling, he said.

Elpida Memory Inc., the last Japanese maker of computer-memory chips, sought protection from creditors in the U.S. as it pursues a bankruptcy case in Japan. The Tokyo-based chipmaker filed court papers today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, listing more than $1 billion in assets and debt. It asked the court to recognize the Japanese case as the main bankruptcy proceeding. Chapter 15 of the bankruptcy code allows foreign companies reorganizing abroad to protect their assets from creditors and lawsuits in the U.S.

The Bank of Japan said Tuesday it will stoke the economy with an additional ¥2 trillion ($24.32 billion) in lending, following a surprise monetary easing at its last meeting as it heightens its drive to rid the economy of debilitating deflation, The Wall Street Journal reported. "We came up with the measure as part of a package" to deal with deflation along with the credit-easing move last month, BOJ Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said at a news conference following a two-day meeting of the bank's policy board.