Hitachi to Merge U.S. Units, Cut 650 Jobs

Hitachi Ltd., Japan’s largest electronics maker, said it will merge two of its U.S. units, cutting about 650 jobs in California and Texas. Hitachi said it will merge its semiconductor unit in Brisbane and its Micro Systems Inc. unit in San Jose on Oct. 1. The company also said it will idle its Irving, Texas, plant, effective immediately. The merged unit, to be called Hitachi Semiconductor America Inc., will be based in San Jose and employ about 370 people, the Tokyo-based company said. Hitachi’s American depositary receipts rose $2.88 to close at $52.25 in New York Stock Exchange trading. Separately, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said it plans to close a memory-chip assembly plant in Durham, N.C., cutting 230 jobs.