French fab sold to XbyBus

Atmel Corporation, a producer of advanced semiconductors, is selling its Nantes manufacturing facility and related foundry activities to the French corporation, XbyBus.

Atmel Corporation

, a producer of advanced semiconductors, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement to sell its

Nantes

manufacturing facility and the related foundry activities to

France

’s

XbyBus

. The facility employs approximately 300 employees.

"We are pleased to be able to reach an agreement that will preserve many jobs in France," said George Perlegos, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Additionally, this is an important step in Atmel's plan to consolidate its manufacturing and reduce costs."

XbyBus is planning to develop its activities in high reliability electronic components at the site, particularly in the field of wafer production with proprietary high vacuum processes and plans an investment program of €30 million over the next two years.

The sale of the Nantes facility is expected to be completed before the end of 2005.

Atmel says it will maintain a significant presence in Nantes with the design of Microcontroller products for the automotive and industrial markets along with its space related activities.