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http://hardware-360.com/global-foundries-gets-paid-to-buy-ibm-chip-business/
SourceThe inevitable consolidation of semi-conductor manufactures has claimed it's latest victim. Things have to be looking bad for IBM when they're paying for someone to buy their chip business. IBM is set to hand over $1.5 billion to Global Foundries as part of a deal transferring their entire chip business.
With this transfer, IBM will only retain it's chip R&D department. Everything thing else, including their fabs, engineers, and other chip business parts will be transferred to Global Foundries pending regulator review. As part of the deal, IBM is transferring over $1.5 billion to GF in cash and other capital. IBM must be pretty desperate to get rid of the less than profitable division in order to pay a buyer. IBM will also use Global Foundries for the next 10 years till including 10nm.
After this deal, Global Foundries will become much larger and more capable. The firm will also hold the largest semi-conductor patent portfolio due to IBM's prolific patent filings. Combined with the 14nm partnership with Samsung, Global Foundries has the potential to push forward with new process nodes, something AMD desperately needs to maintain competitiveness with Intel. More fabs and more business means more money for expensive R&D.
The one remaining hurdle is regulatory approval. Global Foundries is majority owned by the Abu Dubai government. Given the sensitive nature of some of the chips currently produced by IBM, various governments like the US might object to a foreign government controlling the business. Various super computers running sensitive information also run on IBM POWER designs. It will be interesting to see how governments, competitors and partners react to this news.
http://hardware-360.com/global-foundries-gets-paid-to-buy-ibm-chip-business/