Brussels, 04/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised the creation of a full-function joint venture between the Japanese electronics companies Hitachi Ltd and NEC Corporation. The new firm will combine the partners' activities in the field of DRAMs (dynamic random access memory). Baptised NEC-Hitachi Memory Inc, the new undertaking will be specialised in the design and marketing of next-generation DRAMs used as the memory of computing devices. The life cycle of DRAMs is very short and their capacity to store data has doubled in just a few years. At the conclusion of its review of the case, the Commission announced that the joint venture would neither create nor reinforce a dominant position in the sector concerned due to the presence of several competitors, e.g. Samsung Electronics, Siemens, Micron Technoogy and Hyundai. The presence of Hitachi and NEC on the related markets of personal computers and other electronic components does not create any competition problems, as their market shares are quite limited.