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[tecate]

This has probably been posted before.. (probaby by me too) but I'm so damn busy I haven't had time to reach much.

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/02/12/0212amd.html

AMD to get $337 million in EU aid for German factories
State subsidies required reapproval after deal with Abu Dhabi to spin off chipmaking operations.
By Matthew Newman


Thursday, February 12, 2009

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the second-largest maker of computer processors after Intel Corp., won European Union approval to receive 262 million euros, or about $337 million, in state subsidies for factories in eastern Germany.

The European Commission, the EU's antitrust authority, said on its Web site that it gave approval last month to the aid for the second time, after AMD said it plans to spin off its German plants as part of an $2.1 billion investment from the Abu Dhabi government.

Under the terms of the deal, announced on Oct. 7, Abu Dhabi will buy a stake in a new company that will own two AMD plants in Germany and build another in New York.

Under EU rules, AMD had to resubmit the aid plan to the Brussels, Belgium-based EU regulator because of the change in ownership.

Shareholders of AMD will vote Wednesday on whether to spin off the plants after failing to reach a quorum at a meeting Tuesday. AMD stands to receive a $700 million cash infusion from the deal, which would help it as it struggles to regain profitability in a weak semiconductor market.

Jens Drews, a spokesman for AMD in Dresden, Germany, said the EU's aid approval was a central condition of the Abu Dhabi agreement.

The spinoff company, presently called the Foundry Co., is expected to have about 3,000 workers, with about 90 percent of them in Germany.

AMD employs about 2,300 workers in the Austin area, and slightly more than 100 of them are expected to become part of the