日本半導(dǎo)體業(yè)者瑞薩電子(Renesas Electronics)近日發(fā)布最新一季(2014年4~6月)財(cái)報(bào)，當(dāng)季業(yè)績(jī)表現(xiàn)優(yōu)于該公司預(yù)測(cè)，半導(dǎo)體銷售額較上一季成長(zhǎng)4.9%，來到2,012 億日?qǐng)A(19.7億美元)，營業(yè)收入(operating income)則較上一季的100億日?qǐng)A成長(zhǎng)至270億日?qǐng)A。 瑞薩這一季芯片銷售額與上一季、去年同期相較都呈現(xiàn)成長(zhǎng)，主要?jiǎng)恿碜云囆酒约巴ㄓ卯a(chǎn)品,例如，高性能、低功耗的運(yùn)算放大器產(chǎn)品；不過這樣的成長(zhǎng)表現(xiàn)并不能證明瑞薩已經(jīng)完全復(fù)蘇，瑞薩首席執(zhí)行官作田久男(Hisao Sakuta)在一場(chǎng)記者會(huì)上形容該公司仍是“住院觀察中的病人”。 瑞薩目前的管理團(tuán)隊(duì)將注意力集中在公司毛利，簡(jiǎn)單來說，如果沒有足夠的毛利支撐，一家公司就無法支付營運(yùn)等未來發(fā)展所需支出；作田表示，瑞薩目前最緊急的任務(wù)是“提升毛利率，為生存而奮斗”。他在記者會(huì)上接受提問時(shí)，還反問了一個(gè)問題：“如果你是客戶，你會(huì)跟一家有可能破產(chǎn)的公司做生意嗎？” 最近這幾季，瑞薩的毛利一直穩(wěn)定成長(zhǎng)，主要原因包括日幣貶值、各項(xiàng)組織改造策略奏效(包括關(guān)閉晶圓廠、裁員)，以及將資源集中在某些產(chǎn)品線。瑞薩估計(jì)在本會(huì)計(jì)年度的下半年，毛利率可提升到38.3%；作田指出：“我們的目標(biāo)是在三年內(nèi)將毛利率進(jìn)一步提升至45%。”

瑞薩季度財(cái)報(bào)
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那些走向EOL的產(chǎn)品 先前擔(dān)任奧姆龍(Omron)總裁暨董事長(zhǎng)的作田，在記者會(huì)上還透露了一些瑞薩正在與客戶協(xié)商部分產(chǎn)品停產(chǎn)問題的“殘酷細(xì)節(jié)”──他表示，除了繼續(xù)進(jìn)行組織改造，瑞薩亟需退出利潤(rùn)不佳的產(chǎn)品線，就算那些產(chǎn)品可能仍是客戶有關(guān)鍵需求的芯片。 因?yàn)橐呀?jīng)關(guān)閉了旗下幾座晶圓廠，瑞薩無法再生產(chǎn)某些特定芯片產(chǎn)品；此外該公司也需要停止生產(chǎn)某些客戶需求已經(jīng)大量萎縮的產(chǎn)品。盡管停產(chǎn)特定零組件是讓瑞薩提升毛利的最關(guān)鍵步驟，這也是對(duì)客戶來說最具爭(zhēng)議性(也是最不受歡迎)的策略。

瑞薩首席執(zhí)行官作田久男

瑞薩大部分的車用芯片營收，是來自于該公司與包括豐田(Toyota)等日本汽車大廠在內(nèi)的長(zhǎng)期關(guān)系，因?yàn)槠噺S商往往需要長(zhǎng)期供應(yīng)的、具備一定質(zhì)量的產(chǎn) 品；因此瑞薩與客戶之間的停產(chǎn)協(xié)商不但不討喜，也不是簡(jiǎn)單任務(wù)。不過作田表示，與產(chǎn)業(yè)界人士的猜測(cè)相反，瑞薩與汽車廠商之間的協(xié)商已經(jīng)取得進(jìn)展。 “當(dāng)然，我們也曾重復(fù)被(一些特定汽車廠商)告知，“不要再來找我們了”；”作田指出：“但到最后，我們的客戶還是會(huì)需要我們，我們也需要他們。我們一直懇求他們回到桌邊來談，也取得了進(jìn)展。”他表示，事實(shí)上瑞薩在非汽車相關(guān)領(lǐng)域遇到更多的困難。 停產(chǎn)部分產(chǎn)品的沖擊已經(jīng)顯現(xiàn)在瑞薩的財(cái)報(bào)數(shù)字上；瑞薩首席財(cái)務(wù)官柴田英利(Hidetoshi Shibata)表示，因?yàn)樾枰崆皫齑鏈?zhǔn)備停產(chǎn)的組件，該公司在最近一季已經(jīng)看到人為收入提升(artificial income boost)：“為了確保持續(xù)的正面結(jié)果，我們需要進(jìn)一步的改造?！? 雖然與客戶之間的停產(chǎn)協(xié)商會(huì)很艱難，雙方都需要保持一定程度的相互尊重與信任。作田解釋，對(duì)于芯片供貨商能維持多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的特定必須組件供應(yīng)，以及客戶在某一段特定時(shí)期的實(shí)際芯片需求量是多少，雙方要取得共識(shí)。 作田表示，客戶會(huì)是根據(jù)未來產(chǎn)品銷售量預(yù)測(cè)來衡量，供貨商則是要留意其需求：“如果他們說需要100顆芯片，我們會(huì)需要生產(chǎn)比那更多的芯片，因?yàn)榭蛻舨荒苋绷希坏绻刑嘟M件剩余未使用，誰要買單？我們能跟客戶分?jǐn)傔@樣的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)嗎？” 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 第2頁：出售子公司，過度依賴車用芯片 第3頁：仍在奮力掙扎求生，管理層間派系斗爭(zhēng)嚴(yán)重 {pagination} 出售子公司Renesas SP Drivers 瑞薩在今年也決定出售旗下子公司瑞力(Renesas SP Drivers)，后者是一家LCD驅(qū)動(dòng)器/控制器芯片無晶圓廠設(shè)計(jì)公司，在市場(chǎng)上并不是熱門公司；但因?yàn)槿鹆Φ漠a(chǎn)品進(jìn)駐了蘋果(Apple) iPhone、為瑞薩整體營收貢獻(xiàn)不少，產(chǎn)業(yè)分析師也質(zhì)疑作田出售子公司的決定是否明智──事實(shí)上，瑞力是全球最大的中小尺寸LCD面板驅(qū)動(dòng)芯片供貨商， 市占率高達(dá)30%。 對(duì)于放棄該項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)，作田表示：“確實(shí)，瑞力是有獲利能力的，但我的觀點(diǎn)是LCD驅(qū)動(dòng)芯片在未來還有許多需要做的；”而瑞薩已決定專注于汽車與工業(yè)電子，恐怕無暇兼顧非核心業(yè)務(wù)的瑞薩：“以長(zhǎng)期來看，我們恐怕無法維持瑞力目前的市占率水平?！? 作田認(rèn)為，能在瑞力發(fā)展最高峰的時(shí)候賣掉它是最好的，而美商Synaptics已決定以總價(jià)485億日?qǐng)A(4.75億美元)買下其所有股份。其他瑞薩打算結(jié) 束或是退出的業(yè)務(wù)包括光驅(qū)驅(qū)動(dòng)器、PC用SoC與低電壓功率MOSFET、LTE調(diào)制解調(diào)器芯片、手機(jī)用安全微控制器(MCU)、大尺寸顯示器驅(qū)動(dòng)IC，以 及家用多媒體SoC、游戲機(jī)SoC等等。 車用芯片業(yè)務(wù) 在全球車用芯片市場(chǎng)，擁有38%市占率的瑞薩無疑是領(lǐng)導(dǎo)供貨商；該公司在工業(yè)用MCU市場(chǎng)上的排名也是數(shù)一數(shù)二。作田表示，根據(jù)市場(chǎng)研究機(jī)構(gòu)Gartner的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)，“瑞薩的MCU銷售量在全球供貨商排行榜上，是最接近之競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手(Freescale)的一倍以上?！?

瑞薩是全球汽車與工業(yè)領(lǐng)域的第一大MCU供貨商
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作田指出，維持瑞薩在車用MCU市場(chǎng)的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)地位，是“最急迫的任務(wù)”。瑞薩的車用芯片業(yè)務(wù)中，有七成營收來自于汽車控制芯片──包括動(dòng)力傳動(dòng)、汽車底盤/安 全性，以及車身控制；其余則是應(yīng)用于汽車信息/駕駛輔助等裝置。至于新崛起的先進(jìn)駕駛輔助系統(tǒng)(ADAS)市場(chǎng)，瑞薩到目前為止則很少談?wù)撓嚓P(guān)產(chǎn)品或是市占率。 針對(duì)瑞薩的車用市場(chǎng)策略，作田表示瑞薩期望能藉由確保車用芯片的“功能性安全(functional safety)”來增加產(chǎn)品價(jià)值，并將“安全性”整合到其汽車解決方案。舉例來說，瑞薩在提供金融卡安全性功能方面有長(zhǎng)期經(jīng)驗(yàn)，這在汽車解決方案將會(huì)很有幫助。 在 被問到瑞薩將如何在汽車儀表板以及車用資通訊娛樂系統(tǒng)領(lǐng)域與眾多新進(jìn)者──包括Nvidia、高通(Qualcomm)與英特爾──競(jìng)爭(zhēng)時(shí)，作田表示：“我們會(huì)需要在一個(gè)更廣大的產(chǎn)業(yè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中建立伙伴關(guān)系。”并指出，單一家芯片能在一個(gè)廣大的市場(chǎng)上創(chuàng)造明顯差異化的時(shí)代已經(jīng)不復(fù)存在。 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 第3頁：仍在奮力掙扎求生，管理層間派系斗爭(zhēng)嚴(yán)重 {pagination} 仍在奮力掙扎求生 在記者會(huì)上，作田的發(fā)言一直未偏離該公司提升毛利的承諾、以及將如何達(dá)成其目標(biāo)的計(jì)劃；他完全沒有提到現(xiàn)今在芯片供貨商發(fā)表財(cái)報(bào)時(shí)，最常提到的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)(IoT)市場(chǎng)。對(duì)此作田表示：“我跳過這個(gè)題目，并不是因?yàn)樗鼘?duì)我們不重要，而是我認(rèn)為它已經(jīng)是既定的?！? 作田認(rèn)為，在正起飛的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)市場(chǎng)，安全性是一個(gè)懸而未決的問題：“瑞薩希望能在安全性與RF方面對(duì)物聯(lián)網(wǎng)市場(chǎng)有所貢獻(xiàn)?！彼赋觯骸拔页１灰髮?duì)員工談一些大方向、能協(xié)助他們夢(mèng)想偉大的題目；談夢(mèng)想很容易，但如果我們不執(zhí)行計(jì)劃，就沒有夢(mèng)想可言。” 記者會(huì)結(jié)束之后，筆者恰好與作田搭同一部電梯；我問他自一年前加入瑞薩以來有哪些讓他感到驚訝的大事，他用了一句日文“想定外(soteigai)”，也就 是超出預(yù)料之外(這個(gè)詞在日本2011年311大地震與海嘯期間成為熱門的形容詞)；他表示：“很多事情都出乎意料之外?！? 日本產(chǎn)業(yè)界廣泛流傳，瑞薩衰弱不振的關(guān)鍵因素之一，是因?yàn)楦鱾€(gè)業(yè)務(wù)單位的管理階層架構(gòu)太過繁復(fù)，因?yàn)樵摴臼怯扇樟?Hitachi)、三菱 (Mitsubishi)與NEC的半導(dǎo)體部門合并而成；作田是第一個(gè)在公開場(chǎng)合指責(zé)這種非必要、多余之高昂固定成本的瑞薩CEO：“有這些不斷增加的固 定成本，瑞薩就無法產(chǎn)生任何新的力量?！? 我問作田，三家母公司管理階層之間的派系斗爭(zhēng)是否讓他感到意外，他說：“沒有，這是個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的問題?！彼f，讓他意外的事情是，要讓瑞薩完全復(fù)蘇的這個(gè)工作：“仍然讓人煩惱而且非常痛苦?！比鹚_目前針對(duì)受組織重整影響的員工提供優(yōu)退計(jì)劃， 沒有公布人數(shù)無上限或目標(biāo)，該公司將為9月份提出申請(qǐng)的員工設(shè)定退休日期。

瑞薩的2016年財(cái)務(wù)目標(biāo)
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本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 編譯：Judith Cheng 參考英文原文：To Stay Alive, Renesas Negotiates End-of-Life Deals，by Junko Yoshida {pagination} To Stay Alive, Renesas Negotiates End-of-Life Deals Junko Yoshida TOKYO — Renesas Electronics, beating its own estimates, reported Wednesday, Aug. 6, that its semiconductor sales in the April-June quarter grew to 201.2 billion yen (US$1.97 billion), up 4.9 percent from the previous quarter. Operating income was 27.0 billion yen, an increase of 10 billion yen over the last quarter. Driven by increases in automotive sales and general-purpose products, the company’s first-quarter chip sales grew both quarter-by-quarter and year-on-year. This uptick, however, is hardly a proof of Renesas’s full recovery, according to CEO Hisao Sakuta. During a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday, Sakuta described Renesas as “a patient still in the hospital.” Today, the new management team at Renesas is focused on gross margin. Simply put, without an adequate gross margin, a company can’t pay its operating and other expenses and build for the future. Sakuta said that the most urgent task for Renesas, “still fighting for survival... [is] to improve our gross profit rate.” Sakuta, during Q&A, asked a rhetorical question: “If you’re a customer, would you do business with a company who might go bankrupt?” Renesas’s gross margin has been steadily improving in recent quarters -- helped by foreign currency exchange rates, a host of structuring reforms (closing a number of its own fabs and laying off employees), and selective focus on the company’s product mix. Noting that the company’s estimated gross profit rate is 38.3 percent during the second half of the current fiscal year, Sakuta said, “Our goal is to improve it to 45 percent in three years.” Renesas Quarterly Financial Results Click here for larger image. (Source: Renesas Electronics) End-of-life products Sakuta, former Omron president and chairman, bluntly offered a few of the “gory details” of the end-of-life (EOL) product negotiations Renesas is engaged in with its customers. Beyond its commitment to further “structural reforms,” Renesas badly needs to unload unprofitable products, even though some of those chips are in critical demand by customers, according to the Renesas CEO. Renesas simply won’t be able to make certain chips due to the closing of its own fabs. In some cases, Renesas needs to end the product because the company sees that customer applications are shrinking. While ending the production of certain parts and components is surely the most critical step in restoring the company’s gross margin, it’s the most controversial (and grossly unpopular) among customers. Much of Renesas’s automotive chip revenue is generated by the company’s long-standing relationships with Japan’s leading carmakers, including Toyota. Since automotive companies tend to need certain qualified products on a long-term basis, these EOL discussions are neither pleasant nor easy. Sakuta, however, said, contrary to some industry speculations, Renesas is making progress negotiating with carmakers. Hisao Sakuta, CEO Renesas Electronics (Source: EE Times/Junko Yoshida) “Of course, we have been repeatedly told [by certain automotive companies], ‘Never ever come and visit us again,’ ” said Sakuta. “But in the end, our customers will need us, and we will need them. We’ve been pleading for them to come back to the table, and we are succeeding to an extent.” In fact, Renesas now faces more difficulties in areas unrelated to automotive, according to Sakuta. The impact of EOL decisions on some products is already showing in the company’s financial results. Because Renesas needs to stockpile EOL products in advance, the company has seen an artificial income boost in the latest quarter, said Renesas CFO Hidetoshi Shibata: “To ensure constant positive results, we need to do further reforms.” Although EOL discussions with customers can be tough, both parties need to preserve a level of mutual respect and trust. Sakuta explained that a chip supplier and customer need to agree on how long the chip vendor can keep supplying certain needed parts, and how many chips the customer actually needs over a certain period of time. The customer is relying on its own forecast of how many products it will actually sell in the future, and the supplier is heeding its needs, Sakuta explained. “If they say they need 100 chips, we’d have to make a lot more than 100 chips, because they can’t be short of parts. But if any parts are left unused, who pays for them? Do we share the risk with our customer?” Sale of Renesas SP Drivers Renesas’s decision this year to unload its stake in Renesas SP Drivers, a fabless supplier of drivers and controllers for liquid crystal displays, wasn’t exactly popular. Industry analysts questioned Sakuta’s wisdom in this sale, at a time when Renesas SP Drivers’ products are designed into Apple’s iPhones, making a healthy contribution to Renesas’s revenue. In fact, Renesas SP Drivers is the world's largest maker of small and midsized LCD drivers, holding a 30 percent share of the market. Speaking about ending this business, Sakuta said, “Surely, Renesas SP Drivers has been profitable. But my view is that a lot more needs to be done in the LCD drivers of the future.” Citing Renesas’s commitment to concentrate on automotive and industrial electronics, he added, “I predict Renesas SP Drivers’ business will eventually become a little remote island, very little to do with our core businesses. We wouldn’t be able to maintain the current share, over the long term.” Sakuta thought it best, he said, to sell the company at its height. Synaptics will purchase all shares of Renesas SP Drivers in October, including those not held by Renesas, for 48.5 billion yen ($475 million). Other businesses and products Renesas is planning to end or withdraw from include optical disk drives, SoC and low-voltage power MOSFET for PCs, LTE modem ICs, secure MCU for mobile handsets, large display driver ICs and home multimedia SoC, and game console SoC business. Automotive business Renesas remains the undisputed world leader in the automotive MCU business, with 38 percent market share. Similarly, the company is tops in the industrial MCU market. Sakuta went out of his way to point out that Renesas holds “more than double the market share of Renesas's closest competitor” (Freescale) in worldwide MCU sales rankings last year, according to Gartner’s numbers. Renesas is the No. 1 MCU supplier in both the automotive and industrial product categories. (Source: Gartner) Maintaining its lead in automotive MCU is Renesas’s “most pressing agenda,” said Sakuta. Of Renesas’s automotive business, 70 percent of the company’s revenue is generated by chips used in automotive controls -- including those used in powertrain, chassis/safety, and body. The rest comes from chips used in automotive information/driver assistance. While the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) market is still emerging, Renesas, thus far, has spoken very little of its products in the offing or its market share. Asked about the company’s automotive strategy, Sakuta said Renesas hopes to add value by ensuring the “functional safety” of its automotive chips, and integrating “security” into its automotive solutions. Renesas’s long-running experience in providing security functions to bank cards, for example, should be useful in the automotive solutions, he believes. Asked how Renesas plans to compete in automotive dash and in-vehicle infotainment systems, where a host of newcomers -- including Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Intel -- are moving in, Sakuta said, “We’ll need partnerships in a larger ecosystem.” The days are long past when a single chip company can make a huge difference in a very large market, he added. Still painful During the press conference, Sakuta never deviated from the company’s commitment to improvement of its gross margin and how the company plans to achieve it. Sakuta didn’t mention even once the Internet of Things -- a familiar current theme among chip vendors announcing their earning results. Asked why, Sakuta said, “I skipped the topic, not because it’s unimportant to us, but I see it already as a given.” For the IoT market to take off, security remains an unsettled issue, said Sakuta. “Renesas hopes to contribute to IoT, in terms of security and RF.” “I’m often asked to speak to our employees about something big, something that helps them hold big dreams. It’s easy to talk about dreams. But if we don’t execute our plans, we have no dreams to talk about.” After the press conference, this reporter shared an elevator ride with Sakuta. Asked about big surprises since he joined Renesas a year ago, he used the word “soteigai,” meaning unforeseeable, (the word got popular in Japan when many authorities used the term to describe what happened at the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in 2011). Sakuta said, “There have been just so many things that were ‘soteigai.’ ” It’s been broadly reported in Japan that the key issue for an ailing Renesas was a double or triple management structure created in each business unit, as a result of the merger of chip divisions of Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and NEC. During the press conference, Sakuta was the first Renesas CEO to blame this redundancy for the company’s unnecessarily high fixed costs. “With all that increased fixed cost, Renesas didn’t create any new energy or strength.” When asked if the factional struggle among managers from three different parent companies surprised him, Sakuta said, “No. That was an easy problem.” Surprising to him was that the job of achieving a full recovery at Renesas “is still agonizing and still very painful.” Over the past two years, Renesas dramatically reduced its head count from 42,800 to 27,200. In early July, Renesas announced yet another reorganization plan by “redefining the design and development units at Renesas and those at the group’s three affiliate companies in Japan.” Renesas is offering an early retirement program for employees and affiliate companies affected by these changes. While no upper limit or target has been stated, the company is setting the retirement date for those who apply at September 2014. Renesas Targeted Financial Model Net sales in billions of yen. Click here for larger image.