Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Microchip Unloads Idle Puyallup Plant for $30M

Microchip Technology Inc., a manufacturer of microcontroller and analogy semiconductors, announced Tuesday that an undisclosed buyer has purchased its idle Fab 3 manufacturing plant in Puyallup, Washington, for $30 million. Microchip said the transaction closed Oct. 19 and amounts to a $16.5 million net income tax loss, or an earnings-per-share hit of 7.4 cents that was applied to Q3 2007. Microchip said that it received an unsolicited offer for the plant in September. The firm said that the company accepted the offer because it had already decided to shut down Fab 3 for several years, citing adequate production and revenue capacity from its Fab 4 facility in Gresham, Ore., and its Fab 2 plant in Tempe, Ariz. Microchip Technology is headquartered in Chandler, Ariz.