National Semiconductor Corp yesterday signed an agreement to sell the odds and ends of businesses that it shunted off into its new Fairchild Semiconductor Inc unit to a group that includes Fairchild Management and Sterling LLC, a Citicorp Venture Capital Ltd investment portfolio company. The group will lead a $550m recapitalization of Fairchild Semiconductor and NatSemi will retain a minority equity interest. After the sale, NatSemi will have 12,300 employees and will continue to operate wafer fabrication facilities at Santa Clara; Arlington, Texas; and Greenock, Scotland; as well as the new 8 0.35-micron wafer fab at South Portland, Maine. Fairchild will employ 6,400 and will be headquartered in South Portland, Maine, with memory and discrete product groups located in Santa Clara. It will operate 4, 5 and 6 wafer fabs in South Portland and a 6 fab in West Jordan, Utah.
