Late last month, DRAM major Qimonda announced insolvency. This company now has a month's cash left to carry on operations, before having to dissolve its assets. The company is reportedly looking for buyers. The news of Qimonda's departure in the making, for the industry didn't have immediate repercussions post announcement, since it coincided with a week of holidays on the occasion of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

When the traders returned to work after the holiday, DRAM prices shot up due to widespread concerns over the departure of Qimonda disturbing supply-chains. The price of the DRAM chip used as a standard to gauge DRAM prices, a common DDR2-667 1Gbit (128MB) chip, rose by as much as 27% to US $1.08, as measured by DRAMeXchange, a company that runs online DRAM chip stock clearance sales. Analysts at Gartner predict short-term and long-term implications of Qimonda's exit: on the short-term, DRAM prices will rise as the fall of Qimonda will disturb supply-chains. On the long term though, the market will stabilize since it is still saturated with DRAM over-supply even without Qimonda. It isn't a good time to buy DRAM chips, as a result of which, other weaker DRAM companies may also file for bankruptcy, disturbing supply-chains.