Freescale: Biggest Leverage Buyout in Tech Sector History
Wi-Fi Networking News' Glenn Fleishman today picks up on a New York Times article saying it looks like Freescale Semiconductor will soon be purchased by a consortium of investment firms for as much as $16 billion — making it the largest leverage buyout ever in the technology sector.
But as Fleishman points out, what's really interesting here is the question of what will happen to Freescale's embattled UWB offering as a result. "Will UWB survive this buyout?" he asks. "Several years with no shipping products and a delay of shipments of manufactured goods from January to March to July to next year, reportedly, doesn't make it likely that hard-nosed investors, on purchasing Freescale, will continue to authorize the division."
The likely result, Fleishman says, is the end of the company's UWB efforts. "Freescale is extremely successful in its other fields of endeavor, and I expect that following a sale, we will hear about a write-down for its UWB efforts, and then, eventually, how the firm has joined the WiMedia Alliance," he writes.