Date: 03/10/2008

Freescale ups investment in growing markets and intent to sell of its cellphone IC business

Freescale Semiconductor has announced its plans to strengthen its hold on growing markets. Freescale will invest more in automotive and networking markets to further raise its market share in its market leading areas of automotive microcontrollers, communication processors and radio frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs). Other markets such as industrial and consumer markets will also be given importance. The products of focus are microcontrollers, microprocessors, application-specific processors, analog, power and sensor ICs.

In this process, Freescale wanted to get away from cellphone IC business by selling off or through some other partnership options. The company's cellular handset products business includes baseband processors, RF transceivers, power management/audio, software and platforms for the cellular handset market.

The company also announced it has updated its arrangement with Motorola whereby Motorola agreed to provide certain consideration in exchange for eliminating their remaining minimum purchase commitments.

Chairman and chief executive officer Rich Beyer said, "As the semiconductor market continues to consolidate, it is essential that we maximize our investment on growth opportunities that enable us to extend our market leadership and to ultimately create shareholder value."

With the increased funding from this strategic focus, the company will advance their integration of microcontroller, analog, power and sensor technology for the next generation of hybrid vehicles and provide solutions for more stringent emission and safety standards.