It is still by no means clear whether it was Fujitsu bowing to surreptitious Japanese government pressure, or Schlumberger feeling it could afford to wait no longer to get the affair settled, but the two sides announced late on Monday that sale of 80% of Schlumberger’s Fairchild Semiconductor subsidiary was off. Some observers believe that Fujitsu, stoutly maintaining until late last week that it was not going to be bounced out of a superb commercial deal by politics, finally caved in when Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger joined forces with traditional antagonist, Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, to oppose the deal (CI No 640) with the CIA nodding vigorously in the background. Now the management of Fairchild Semiconductor is trying to put together a buy-out package, but several US companies, including LSI Logic, the company founded by one-time Fairchild president Wilf Corrigan, and Advanced Micro Devices, are expected to weigh offers.
