Freescale sold for $17.6 billion

A PRIVATE equity consortium bought out Freescale for $17.6 billion, the biggest ever such transaction.

The consortium includes the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group, Permira Funds and the Texas Pacific Group. Freescale was spun off by Motorola as a separate semiconductor group.

Freescale has the option to sell itself to other third parties for a period of 50 days, but the board of directors has approved this deal. µ