Raytheon Co. agreed Wednesday to sell its semiconductor-making unit to Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. for $120 million in cash, as it concentrates on its aerospace and defense electronics businesses.
The acquisition will expand Fairchild’s product line, now dominated by logic chips, to include analog chips that are used to process signals in everything from cellular telephones to professional video cameras.
Fairchild, based in South Portland, Maine, plans to boost research and development spending and use its sales force and a worldwide customer base of more than 50,000 to increase sales at the former Raytheon unit, which has about $76 million in annual revenue, chief financial officer Joe Martin said.
Lexington-based Raytheon expects next month to complete its $9.5 billion purchase of the Hughes defense business of General Motors Corp., following the July acquisition of Texas Instruments’ defense electronics operation for $2.95 billion.
The Raytheon unit, with operations in San Diego and Mountain View, Calif., has 421 employees and produces chips used in PCs, power converters and professional video cameras, Martin said. Fairchild expects to keep all the employees, a spokeswoman said.
