There was no firm sale agreement behind all the excitement in the Thorn EMI Plc share price last week but we now believe that the company is fairly close to agreement for the sale of a majority stake in its Inmos International Plc – and that 75% of the equity will be shared by the Big Three European chipmakers – Siemens AG, SGS-Thomson Microelectronics and Philips NV. It seems likely that the the continentals will each take 25% leaving Thorn with 25%. Agreement is expected to be reached in a couple of months.
Inmos also seems set to land a new blue chip reference client in the shape of AT&T Co: word is that AT&T plans to use the Transputer in a new public telephone exchange.