Cordless sale

National Semiconductor is to sell its cordless business unit to HgCapital, a private equity investor based in London, UK. 

HgCapital will acquire intellectual property, assets and approximately 70 engineers, all of whom are based at National's cordless business unit in 's-Hertogenbosch and its design centre in Hengelo, The Netherlands. 

National's design team in 's-Hertogenbosch creates system products targeted primarily for the Digital Cordless Telephony (DCT) market. These products include baseband and radio transceivers for cordless telephones and basestations as well as cordless voice modules. The cordless business unit currently represents approximately 5% of National's quarterly revenues.

"This transaction is in line with our ongoing efforts to focus investments on National's higher-margin products in the standard linear analog market," said Brian L. Halla, National's chairman, president and CEO. 

The sale is expected to close during the first quarter of fiscal 2006, which begins May 30, 2005.

National will continue to provide manufacturing, sales and infrastructure support during a transition period in order to maintain a continuous supply for customers.