A chip industry veteran has been named to head a state-backed company that will merge six memory chipmakers.

United Microelectronics Corp. executive John Hsuan will take the six are from domestic companies desperate for financial aid and form them into one big company.

According to Bloomberg the government will have a 50 percent stake in the new super company. The outfit, called Taiwan Memory Co. will be established within six months

The Taiwan-based companies are Nanya Technology, Inotera Memories, Powerchip Semiconductor, Rexchip Electronics, ProMOS Technologies, and Winbond Electronics.