GlobalFoundries will buy IBM semiconductor business

Most probably the US company GlobalFoundries will buy IBM semiconductor business. The American company is a favorite in the race to bid for the semiconductor business of technology giant. According to the official information IBM is negotiating also with Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC). However, the rumors say that the Asian company is getting out from the bidding, while Intel has decreased their interest.

Till that moment there is no sign for recent completion of the acquisition, as the problematic in the case is the fact that the transaction will include an intellectual property. Still need to be clarified and under what conditions the buyer can keep producing chips for servers IBM. Another problem is the price, as IBM want about 2 billion USD for its semiconductor division and the offers till now were not more than 1 billion USD.

TSMC spokesman said that the Taiwanese company has met with the production of IBM chips, but still did not want to drive a new plant abroad. From IBM, GlobalFoundries and Intel WSJ still did not commented the situation.

The production of computer chips is highly capital intensive business and prone to fluctuations. The sale of semiconductor production will be the most important strategic step for IBM, since it was decided to phase out the production of personal computers in 2004. IBM sold in January the low-income part of its server business to the Chinese PC maker Lenovo, which has previously acquired also PC business. The value of the deal was 2.3 billion USD, as it also includes the legendary laptops Thinkpad. The IT giant is increasingly focused on software and services, because these areas promise higher profits.