Philips Electronics NV is to take a controlling 51% stake in a new company to be formed to run IBM Corp’s Bblingen Hulb semiconductor plant near Stuttgart in Germany under the definitive agreement resulting from the negotiations announced last October, which turn out to be rather more substantial than implied at the time (CI No 2,519). The joint venture is expected to start operations by the beginning of April. IBM employees at the site will work for the new company to make products solely for Philips and IBM. The plant currently makes 4M-bit memory chips for IBM, and this work will continue, but Philips will use spare capacity at the plant to make 0.8 micron CMOS logic products. The agreement is seen as securing the future of the plant, which has caused IBM political difficulties because of restrictive and job-destroying German employment regulations that require most factories to close on Sundays. The two now plan to upgrade the facility for production of next generation integrated circuits.
