Panasonic Sells Some of its Fabs to TowerJazz

Reuters, Bloomberg, Globes: Panasonic is reported to sell its three Japanese fabs to TowerJazz. It's not immediately clear whether Panasonic sells its image sensor plants. "The companies are negotiating the size of the stake and transfer of the factories' workers, one of the sources said. The three chip plants in Japan, with about 2,500 workers, have been fully depreciated and had a combined book value of 42.2 billion yen ($416 million) as of March 31.

Panasonic said nothing had been decided. Officials at TowerJazz's headquarters could not immediately be reached." "The plants are likely worth more than 10 billion yen ($99 million), and a final decision may come as soon as next month."

So far Panasonic has more than 3 fabs in Japan, not clear which ones go to TowerJazz:

Meanwhile, image sensors are presented as one of the core technologies at Panasonic site: