STMicro buys a bit of Alcatel

Sacre bleu...

French chip firm STMicroelectronics has bought Alcatel's microelectronics division in a $382.5m deal. The deal - which got European Commission approval this week - will extend an existing alliance, with the two companies collaborating on development of DSL chipsets. The Alcatel division, which designs and manufactures semiconductor components for the telecommunications market, had been losing ground in the chip market.