Analysis: Wipro's French unit closure may signal semi IP exit

K.C. Krishnadas, EE Times
(09/04/2009 11:10 AM EDT)
 
BANGALORE, India -- Wipro Technologies, one of the world's largest outsourced R & D services provider, has apparently decided to get out of the semiconductor IP business.

While the company has not said so categorically—its reaction to an open letter from employees of its center in Sophia Antipolis in France who said their services had been terminated — seemed to say that the company was closing the center for this reason.

If indeed so, it will not be the first time Wipro is pulling out of the semiconductor IP business. In the 1990s, it had opened a wholly-owned subsidiary based in the U.S. and focused on semiconductor IP, but later shut it down since the business did not make much headway.