On October 5, Lam Research Service Co. Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Lam) announced to give up purchasing KLA-Tencor, and applied to the Chniese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) to recall the market consolidation declaration on October 8.
MOFCOM received the market consolidation declaration of this deal on December 23, 2015, and started its review process on April 21 2016. At present, this case is in the extended review period. In 2015, Lam and KLA-Tencor were the second largest and the fifth largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world. After the presumptive merger, the new enterprise would be the largest one in the globe. After thorough investigation, the MOFCOM believes that this consolidation may have the effect of excluding and limiting competition, and brought to the relevant parties’ attention the problem of fair competition.
During the review process, MOFOCM had close cooperation with the anti-monopoly law enforcement agency of the United States and South Korea, and exchanged views on the issues such as the review progress and fair competition, etc.
Source: http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/article/newsrelease/significantnews/201610/20161001434129.shtml
