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Motorola sells $1B chip plant in China
With the sale of its $1 billion Chinese chip factory, Motorola Inc. has begun streamlining its Austin-based Semiconductor Products Sector as it prepares to spin off the division as a publicly traded company.

Motorola will transfer ownership of its Tianjin, China-based semiconductor plant to China-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. for an undisclosed amount of SMIC stock, Motorola announced. Motorola also will secure a seat on SMIC's board. SMIC produces chips for other companies. Abou 500 people are employed at the plant.

Motorola will continue to own and operate its nearby semiconductor assembly and test center, which employs 1,200 people.

The chip plant was constructed in 2000, but Motorola put its completion on hold because of the decline in industry demand for semiconductors, according to the company.

After the sale, Motorola will have seven chip factories around the world, including two in Austin.

Motorola is planning an initial public offering of a portion of the semiconductor unit, followed by a distribution of the remaining shares to shareholders. The deal is subject to approval by Motorola stockholders.

The Semiconductor Products Sector employs 6,600 people in Austin. The unit's leadership, design and manufacturing team remain in Austin, Motorola spokeswoman Nan McRaven has said. The new company will become the second largest publicly traded company in Central Texas, behind Round Rock-based Dell Inc. [Nasdaq: DELL].

The subsidiary will become the world's No. 1 producer of embedded processors and allow Motorola to focus on its communications and electronics systems businesses.

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola [NYSE: MOT] specalizes in wireless, automotive and broadband communications. Sales in fiscal 2002 totaled $27.3 billion.

© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.

GE sees China global production center

www.chinaview.cn 2003-10-24 16:03:43

@@BEIJING, Oct. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- General Electric (GE) has announced that it will make China its global production center, with its purchase and sales volumes in the country reaching 5 billion yuan each by 2005.

@@As part of its global strategy to enhance China's status, GE has established an industrial park for medical systems in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, which has cost the group 26 million dollars in direct investment.

@@"It represents a landmark investment by GE in China," said ChenZhi, president of GE Medical Systems China.

@@The park, which covers medical equipment R&D, manufacturing, sales and after-sales service, will take up one third of GE's CT scanner equipment production, making China third only to the United States and Japan in CT scanner manufacturing.

@@China, together with Japan and India, has already become the company's most important Asian market, and is expected to become its largest market in 10 years.

@@GE is also ambitious to enhance its purchase and sales volumes as chief executive officer Jeff Immelt believed "China is the world's fastest-growing economy".

@@Immelt said that GE was prepared to expand in China through three fundamental business strategies, namely, stepping up localization from production to after-sales service to win customers, improving local manufacturing facilities and caring more about cultivating a talent pool.

@@It is GE's objective, stressed Immelt, to make GE in China a localized company and an important part of GE.

@@GE, the world's biggest industrial conglomerate, which has wide interests ranging from finance and media to medical equipment and aircraft engines, reported 1.5 billion dollars in revenue in China,compared with 131.7 billion dollars in its global sales last year. Enditem

The megaCommie is in town to once again purchase the latest in American defense technology from Hillary (a member of the Armed Service Committee with Top Secret Clearance)and the DNC. Millions of illegal dollars will again flow into the coffers of the Clintons and the DNC.

Yes, yes. Hillary and the Democrats certainly are entirely to blame for all this. We wouldn't want to say anything against our present Commander-in-Chief, since he is a Republican.