Matsushita to Buy U.S. Chip Plant: National...

Matsushita to Buy U.S. Chip Plant: National Semiconductor Corp. said it had signed a letter of intent to sell its Puyallup, Wash., chip making plant to Matsushita Electronics Corp. for $86 million plus debt. National, of Santa Clara, Calif., said the sale would allow it to trim excess production capacity created by its decision in August to exit the market for ultrafast computer memory chips known as SRAMs. The struggling chip maker, which lost $165.5 million in the first quarter ended Aug. 26, said it expected the sale to close by March, pending national security and antitrust reviews. The sale would give Matsushita, a unit of the Japanese electronics giant of the same name, its first such plant in the United States.