Schlumberger Ltd doesn’t want the uncertainty over the future of its Fairchild Semiconductor unit to drag on indefinitely, and according to Electronic News has set a deadline of September 30 to settle its future. On the table is an offer from the management, backed by CitiCorp, which would set the unit up as a freestanding company. Intergraph Corp in Huntsville, Alabama had wanted to be a part of this bid, but there has been some opposition from within the company, and its present position is uncertain. Its main aim in getting involved was to ensure the future of the Clipper 32-bit chip set used in its top-end workstations – but it is now reportedly evaluating the Sun Microsystems SPARC chip as an alternative – ironically supplied to it by Fujitsu, one of the several sources: Fujitsu originally was to have taken an 80% stake in Fairchild, but backed off after political opposition in Washington, and decided a month ago not to have any involvement at all in the buyout. The other company named as interested in at least a part of Fairchild is National Semiconductor which is said to have made the best offer.
