Freescale puts two fabs up for sale

ATREG has been appointed as advisor to Freescale in the sale of the company's two operational 150-mm semiconductor manufacturing facilities.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- Electronic News, 11/9/2009

Austin-based Freescale Semiconductor has officially placed two of its fabs up for sale after earlier stating it would exit the facilities.

ATREG (Advanced Technology Real Estate Group), the semiconductor division of Colliers International, has been appointed as advisor to Freescale in the sale of the company's two operational 150-mm semiconductor manufacturing facilities. The automotive qualified analog fab offerings are located in Toulouse, France, and Sendai, Japan, and include complete process tool lines and wafer supply agreements.

According to ATREG, the 51-acre Toulouse facility has an 85,000-square foot clean room that manufactures discrete and power management devices using high voltage, mixed-signal technologies. The 22-acre Sendai facility produces flash memory embedded microcontrollers, analog/digital embedded microcontrollers, pressure sensors, and acceleration sensors in an 110,000-square foot clean room. Production capacities range from 40,000 to 50,000 wafers per month.

"ATREG was selected to fully canvass the global semiconductor market for prospective buyers," said Rick McFarland, director of strategy and business operations for Freescale, in a statement. "Both facilities have well-trained, highly motivated work forces providing a buyer a significant advantage to quickly and efficiently bring new products and processes on-line in cost competitive environments."

ATREG did not disclose fab pricing or a timeline for the sales.