A small privately-held San Diego company, Applied Micro Circuits Corp, is offering to buy the military side of Fairchild Semiconductor’s business to prevent it going to Fujitsu Ltd of Japan, according to the Washington Post. Applied Micro Circuits does a mere $25m or so a year, mainly on military contracts. According to the Post, pressure on the US administration to block the proposed sale of 80% of Fairchild to Fujitsu on national security grounds. Fairchild’s parent, Schlumberger, is not keen to sell the business in bits, but says it would consider it if the administration blocked the Fujitsu deal as it stands – but it’s not certain Fujitsu would want the commercial side minus the advanced ECL research and manufacturing technology.
