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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gottfried who wrote (1384)	7/5/2002 2:40:39 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

G, If I had to guess what his reaction was today, I would venture to say he is short. Brian *********************** UMC reportedly looking to buy IBM fab in Vermont Semiconductor Business News (07/05/02 14:03 p.m. EST) SAN JOSE -- There are rumors floating around the industry that Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) is looking to buy an 8-inch wafer fab from IBM Corp.'s Microelectronics Division, according to a report from The Inquirer. The report from the U.K.-based Web site also speculated that Germany's Infineon Technologies AG is also involved in UMC's efforts to buy the fab from IBM. UMC and Munich-based Infineon are also involved in a 300-mm foundry venture in Singapore, dubbed UMCi. UMC, the world's second largest silicon foundry company, is possibly looking at IBM's 8-inch chip-manufacturing complex in Burlington, Vt., the U.K.-based Web site implied. The fab is IBM's main semiconductor production location, with a number of wafer fabs, photomask shops, and other operations in the area. Reports surfaced in May that IBM is looking to sell the fab in Vermont, although the computer giant declined to comment. Infineon, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. were reportedly looking at the fab (see May 14 story ). Given the current problems at IBM, analysts would not be surprised if the computer giant sells the fab to UMC or another party. In April, the Armonk, N.Y.-based computer giant reported a first-quarter profit of $1.19 billion, a 32% decrease from $1.75 billion in the year-earlier period. IBM's first-quarter revenues totaled $18.6 billion, a decrease of 12% compared with the first quarter of 2001. The company blamed the results on slumping computer sales as well as declining technology revenues, which include hard disk drives and semiconductors. IBM is taking some drastic measures to reduce costs. For example, the company recently announced plans to set up a disk-drive joint venture with Japan's Hitachi Ltd. In a restructuring intended to create a counterweight to Asia's fast-growing foundries, IBM last month said it would lay off 1,500 engineers and technicians from its older manufacturing operations and noted it would make a major push into the high-end foundry business (see June 4 story ). And earlier this week, LSI Logic Corp. said it is set to acquire the Mylex business unit, which specializes in RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) systems, from IBM. And, IBM said it is selling an upstate New York interconnect manufacturing division in Endicott to a new company backed by local investors (see July 2 story ).