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Who bought Atmel's Irving, TX, facility? Maxim, that's who |
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May 02, 2007 at 12:56 PM |
Sketchy press releases are a bane of a reporter's existence.
When key pieces of who/what/when/where/how/why are left out, or the details are thin all around, we can get downright grumpy. Case in point: Atmel's announcement that it had finally sold its Irving, TX, Longhorn Drive (no, really, that's the street it's on) facility for $38 million in cash was, shall we say, a bit lacking on details, such as who bought the damn thing!
I first reached out to the agency cited on the press release. They had no further information, but suggested I contact Robert Pursel of Atmel's investor relations. Although Pursel returned my call promptly, he would not tell me who the acquiring party was, saying that the information was not disclosed at the "buyer's request." He did tell me that the purchasing outfit was a "U.S. semiconductor company" with "other locations in the Southwest." He also reminded me that Atmel had shut down the Irving fab in 2002, so the toolset has long since been redeployed and the fab is essentially a shell.
In digging around the Internet for more information and possible leads as to the buyer, I found the old news from 2000 about Atmel's purchase of the plant from Hitachi. This fab has a bit of a pedigree. Also in the archives were the July 2002 stories about the Irving fab being shut down and put on the block for sale. So it's been nearly five years that Atmel has been trying to sell the site.
Figuring there had to be someone in Irving who knew who the buyer was, I searched the city of Irving's Website and found the name of Denise Demonbreun, business liaison for the city. I phoned her and left a message, and she called back not long afterwards. She said the city was "pretty excited" about the Atmel site finally selling. She explained that they've been working with the governor's office on a press release about the deal, which will be issued tomorrow.
But Denise did answer my burning question. In fact, she was quite happy to share the purchasing company's name with me. The buyer? Maxim Integrated Products.
No details yet on what Maxim (which already has a fab presence in Texas) intends to do with the site, but it's good news that the shell will return to its chipmaking roots.
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