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https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20190212PD205.html

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Globalfoundries' recent moves have invited speculation that the US pure-play foundry may be looking for a buyer. Does Globalfoundries' majority shareholder, Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment (ATIC), intend to quit?

Globalfoundries had a number of major announcements in 2018. The company in June disclosed plans to trim its workforce by 5% for cost reasons, after the appointment of a new CEO in March. Later in the year, the foundry announced a halt to its 7nm and more advanced process technology R&D and also a revision to its JV strategy in China.

Globalfoundries reiterated the company is reshaping its technology portfolio to intensify its focus on delivering differentiated 14/12nm FinFET and specialty process node offerings for clients in high-growth markets, and therefore decided to put its 7nm development plan as well as more advanced node R&D on hold.

Globalfoundries also signed an amendment to its investment and cooperation agreement with China's Chengdu municipality, under which the pair will equip their JV fab only for FD-SOI processes.

While the timetable on when the Chengdu fab will kick off commercial production is still not available, Globalfoundries recently reached a deal with Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) to sell one of its 8-inch wafer fabs in Singapore. The value of the transaction, scheduled for completion on December 31, 2019, amounts to US$236 million.

"This transaction is part of our strategy to streamline our global manufacturing footprint and increase our focus in Singapore on technologies where we have clear differentiation such as RF, embedded memory and advanced analog features," said Globalfoundries CEO Tom Caulfield in the company's statement announcing the sale of its Fab 3E. "Consolidating our 200mm operations in Singapore into one campus will also help reduce our operating costs by leveraging the scale of our gigafab facility in Woodlands."

Globalfoundries' streamlining, which is in stark contrast to TSMC's expansion, could be a step taken to make it more sellable on the market.