| 01Dec94 UK: MOTOROLA TO BUY DIGITAL'S SOUTH QUEENSFERRY FAB -
AMD/TSMC CONTRACT.
Digital Equipment is on the verge of selling its wafer fab at
South Queensferry, Edinburgh, to Motorola.
Sources at Motorola say the deal is expected to be signed today
(Thursday), but would not comment on the price.
Motorola has been increasing its capacity over the last two
years to meet demand, buying fabs from Western Digital and
Harris, building fabs in Austin, Texas, and using foundries
around the world.
The South Queensferry fab will not follow the traditional
Motorola naming system of MOS1 to 15, but is expected to be a
fab for specialist products similar to Motorola's COM1 and 2
fabs in Phoenix, or its SMART 1 and 2 smart power fabs.
Motorola says the existing contracts at the site with AMD to
make 486s and Mitsubishi to make the second source of Alpha
chips will be honoured. But Motorola is looking to put its own
process technology into the fab, which could include BICMOS.
AMD says it has a good working relationship with the major
semiconductor vendors and, if there were to be a change in
ownership at the fab, it was confident that the supply will not
be affected in the short term.
AMD has signed a deal with Taiwanese foundry TSMC to make 486s,
and expects to have one million devices from the company this
year. Next year, that will be increased to 10m and will replace
the supply from South Queensferry.
Digital Equipment in the US would not comment on the deal.
by Nick Flaherty.
ELECTRONICS TIMES
|
| It's offical. Here is the press release.
I N T E R O F F I C E M E M O R A N D U M
Date: 05-Jan-1995 15:05GMT
From: Press Releases
PRESS AT A1 at SALES at MRO
Dept:
Tel No:
Doc No: 022978
TO: See Below
Subject: Semiconductor/Scotland 1
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION AND MOTOROLA SEMICONDUCTOR
SIGN AGREEMENT FOR SALE OF
DIGITAL SOUTH QUEENSFERRY SEMICONDUCTOR PLANT
Nikki Richardson Jeff Gorin
Digital Equipment Corporation Motorola Semiconductor
(508)493-6369 (602)952-3854
Andrew Spybey Tony Joyce
Digital Equipment Corporation Motorola Semiconductor
United Kingdom Public Relations East Kilbride, Scotland
(1734)202180 (1355)565240
Shelagh Lester-Smith
Motorola Corp Public Relations
Slough, Berkshire,
United Kingdom
(0753)57555
MAYNARD, Mass. -- January 5, 1995 -- Digital Equipment Corporation and
Motorola Semiconductor today announced that they have signed an agreement
to transfer ownership of Digital's manufacturing facility in South
Queensferry, Scotland to Motorola. The plant, which is about 210,000 square
feet and employs approximately 500 people, manufactures a variety of
semiconductor products, including members of the Alpha microprocessor
family. The transaction is expected to close in summer of 1995.
Under the terms of the agreement, Digital's South Queensferry employees
will become Motorola employees at the transaction closing. In addition, all
Digital semiconductor products, including the Alpha microprocessor, that
are currently being manufactured in South Queensferry will continue to be
fabricated there. And finally, Motorola will honor Digital's two-year
foundry contract with AMD to produce AMD's Am486 microprocessors. By mutual
agreement of Digital and Motorola, financial details about the transaction
will remain confidential to the companies.
Ed Caldwell, vice president Digital Semiconductor, said, "This sale to
Motorola supports Digital's strategy of investing in the future and
deriving the maximum value and use from our facilities and investments.
Digital's core competency, as both a captive producer and merchant vendor
of semiconductors, is the design and manufacture of high-performance
products. This agreement will enable us to offer uninterrupted production
of our current offering while we prepare for future production of our
high-performance semiconductors at our leading-edge facilities in Hudson,
Massachusetts.
"The employees in South Queensferry have played an important role in
Digital's successful semiconductor operations," continued Caldwell. "We are
very pleased to have come to this agreement with Motorola, a company with a
similar culture and values."
"Motorola is actively expanding its wafer fabrication capacity and regards
Digital's South Queensferry facility as a superb asset," commented Fred
Shlapak, senior vice president and general manager of the Motorola European
Semiconductor Group. "This is a world-class facility with a highly capable
workforce. Merging the talents of South Queensferry with those at our
expanding East Kilbride facility will fuel the expansion of Motorola in
Scotland to serve the growing demand from our customers in Europe and
around the world."
Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server
solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information
systems. Digital's scalable Alpha platforms, storage, networking, software
and services, together with industry-focused solutions from business
partners, help organizations compete and win in today's global marketplace.
Motorola is one of the world's leading providers of wireless
communications, semiconductors,and advanced electronic systems and
services. Major equipment businesses include cellular telephone, two-way
radio, paging and data communications, personal communications, automotive,
defense and space electronics and computers. Communications devices,
computers and millions of consumer products are powered by Motorola
semiconductors. The company was a winner of the first Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award in 1988, in recognition of its superior company-wide
management of quality process.
####
Note to Editors: Digital and the Digital logo are trademarks of
Digital Equipment Corporation.
CORP/95/765
Distribution:
You received this message because you subscribed to Press Releases in Readers
Choice. To add or delete your name from this list use the VTX keyword
PROFILE. If you have questions, please send mail to Readers Choice @MRO or
SALES::READERCHOICE. Canadian subscribers: at your ACCESS main menu, select
option #10 for News/Information Service and then option #7 for Readers
Choice.
Distribution:
Not printed
|