Tokyo Electron, US-based Applied Materials, scrap merger

Japanese chip giant Tokyo Electron and US rival Applied Materials said Monday they have agreed to cancel a merger after competition regulators rejected the multi-billion dollar deal.

The announcement comes several days after Comcast and Time Warner Cable said they had scrapped their mega-merger plans, due to opposition by the US Department of Justice to the whopping $45 billion tie-up of the cable and broadband Internet giants.

On Monday Applied Materials announced it has scrapped its nearly $10 billion bid for Tokyo Electron, first announced in 2013, saying that proposed tweaks to the deal did not convince the Department of Justice (DoJ).

"Based on the DoJ's position, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron have determined that there is no realistic prospect for the completion of the merger," the US firm said in a statement.

Neither company will pay termination fees, they said.

Last year Tokyo Electron said completion of the deal could be delayed owing to regulatory delays.

On Monday the Japanese firm said its board of directors agreed to terminate the merger agreement because "there remains a gap between the view of Tokyo Electron and Applied Materials and the view of the United States Department of Justice, and it became apparent that such a gap will not be able to be bridged".

The industry giants make machines that prepare silicon wafers for imprinting with the circuits that turn them into processors capable of crunching numbers, showing video and connecting to mobile networks.

-- Bloomberg News contributed to this report --