In a not-very-surprising move IBM is looking to sell its chip business completely and all heads are towards TSMC and Intel as to whether they would acquire IBM's fabrication plants. However our source has stated that TSMC denies acquisition and Intel has so far remained silent.

IBM has Decided to Sell its Chip Business - TSMC has Allegedly Denied Acquisition Rumors and Intel Stays Silent

Our source is the chinese site MyDrivers.com which states that TSMC is denying all acquisition rumors. If that is true then the next candidate is Intel and to a lesser extent Global Foundries. Intel would be the ideal company to acquire IBM's Fab Plants with the only problem being that it most probably does not require additional foundries. Infact, it recently froze its Fab 42 plant because of capital issues so I would be very surprised if it ends up acquiring IBM's chip plants.

Ofcourse another very important fact is that IBM doesnt want to let its plants go, it just wants someone else to own and operate them. Kind of what happened when AMD gave up Global Foundries yet GloFo was still part of it by contract. But the thing is, relationships like this don't always work out.

Even if IBM does manage to sell its chip business off to a company which is willing to still make POWER chips there would be negative consequences. A relationship such as this is very straightforward. IBM is known for making pioneering advances in the field of lithography and wafer research and in such a relationship there would be relatively less room for R&D and more business as usual. There is also concern that Global Foundries might suffer if IBM is no longer there to share R&D.

IBM has two foundries: one is a 300mm production (currently on 22nm) facility (Building 323) in East Fishkill New York and an older complex in Burlington, Vermont. Even though it seems TSMC would not be taking hold of the reigns, there is still Samsung not accounted for in this equation. Though of course the best acquisition would go to TSMC, which will finally be able to make decent headway to Intel's process lead. Here's me hoping our source is wrong and TSMC ends up with IBM's chip business.

#IBM to sell off fab plants. TSMC Denies Acquisition. Intel is silent. http://t.co/9XzMQ5wI9e

— Usman Pirzada (@usmanpirzada) February 9, 2014