Perkin Elmer Corp, Norwalk, Connecticut is shrinking fast, and having divested its minicomputer business, is now getting out of one of the businesses regarded as most critical to the survival of the US as the world leader in electronic technology, the semiconductor fabrication equipment business. The three units Perkin-Elmer has decided to sell accounted for $507.3m of sales in the year to July 31, about 40% of the company’s total. As well as the chip-making equipment unit, the company will sell its Bodenseewerk Gerattechnik defence guidance and control systems business in West Germany, and its optical systems business in the US. Proceeds will be distributed to its shareholders, either directly or through a buy-back of shares, and the firm will then be left with its instruments and its materials processing units.
