Electronics Production |
Freescale invest heavily in Scotland
American semiconductor company Freescale has underlined its commitment to Scotland through its additional investments of $17.5 million in its Scottish operations during the past 12 months.
Last year Freescale was acquired by private equity consortium for $17.6 billion, raising fears that cost cuts could lead to redundancies at its fabrication plant and research centre in East Kilbride where it employs 1250 people.
According to Freescales senior vice-president and general manager for EMEA, Denis Griot, Scotland was integral to its business strategy and no job cuts were planned. He continued:
"We are growing. The European business represents 25% of our global business."
Freescale is at the moment using its lab in EastKilbride, which employs 300, to develop new chips.
Sunday Herald ask Mr. Griot if Freescale would be interested in Edinburgh-based Wolfson Microelectronics, which specialises in providing chips for the digital consumer product market, he replied: "We don't have any acquisition plans at this stage. But that's a good company."
