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Rumours have circulated that Toshiba Corp and NEC Corp are in preliminary talks that could see the spin-off and merger of their separate semiconductor manufacturing operations. Both companies have posted losses in their semiconductor operations and expect losses to continue during the current economic downturn.

NEC has already made public that it was considering a possible spin-off of its semiconductor operations. A merger would result in the creation of the second largest chip manufacturer after Intel Corp and larger than Samsung Electronics.