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To: sam who wrote (23963)	6/29/1999 9:24:00 PM
From: MileHigh	Respond to of 93625

Tuesday June 29, 8:56 pm Eastern Time National Semi seen close to selling Cyrix to Via By Therese Poletti SAN FRANCISCO, June 29 (Reuters) - National Semiconductor Corp. has reached an agreement to sell its money-losing Cyrix PC processor business to Via Technologies Inc., a Taiwanese maker of chip sets, and a deal could be announced as early as Wednesday, an industry source said. ''They have reached an agreement in principle,'' said one industry source who asked not to be identified. ''I expect they will announce it soon, probably as early as tomorrow.'' The value of the deal was not immediately available. A spokesman for National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM - news), based in Santa Clara, Calif., said the company remained in talks with several companies, including Via, to sell part of Cyrix and that the deadline for bids is Wednesday, June 30. He declined to comment any further. In May, bruised by an ongoing price war with Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD - news), National Semiconductor announced that it would exit the PC processor business by selling part of Cyrix. When it reported its fourth quarter earnings earlier this month, National Semiconductor said that if it did not receive any bids by June 30, it would shut down Cyrix's PC business. Cyrix is a maker of Intel-compatible chips that National Semiconductor purchased in 1997 for $550 milllion. But National Semiconductor plans to keep Cyrix's chips for information appliances like set-top boxes. National Semiconductor also put its South Portland, Maine chip-making plant up for sale. The source said that Via, which has U.S. offices in Fremont, Calif., is not, for now, buying National's plant, but it is one of a few companies bidding for it. The Colorado design center, where Cyrix develops its MediaGX chips used in appliances, Web pad devices and Windows terminals, will stay as part of National Semiconductor, the source said. ''It sounds like they are going to do a deal,'' said Nathan Brookwood, a principal at Insight 64, a consulting firm in Saratoga, Calif. ''Merely turning off the business would have a level of expense associated with it. Via understands that.'' ''Via is a totally rational buyer,'' said David Creamer, a managing director at Broadview International Llc, in Foster City, Calif. ''No one is going to be interested in playing in this market... They (Via) have done a decent job competing against Intel in core logic chip sets.'' Chip sets are a group of chips that are designed to perform other functions around the processor. Via has a cross-license with Intel for its P6 bus architecture, which enables the company to make chip sets for Intel Pentium processor line. Just last week, the chip giant sued Via, alleging patent infringement, breach of contract and unfair business practices. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel said Via was causing market confusion by saying it had rights to products it did not. Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman, said that if Via bought Cyrix it would not have rights to the long-standing cross licensing agreement between Intel and National. ''If Cyrix is sold, the rights do not transfer,'' he said. A spokesman for Via in Fremont said the company has not yet commented on the Intel lawsuit. He also declined to comment on its ongoing talks with National. ''I've heard the same rumors,'' he said.