A Cyrix engineer, who wishes to remain anonymous, has sent his thoughts on the story we carried yesterday about IBM buying the business. He said: "As of now the rumor that has causied the stock to inflate three points is.... well... in my humble opinion a complete and utter mis-truth." He claimed that Cyrix would only be sold to IBM in a linked deal with selling the fab to them too. "Hence, Cyrix parts are the only thing that is filling the fab and IBM is seriously NOT in the market to buy a fab... thus making this a non possibility. But he did say that layoffs were likely to occur. "Word from above has not come down in terms of numbers. I would put my money on this one. It's pretty much common sense -- the company is doing bad --- time to trim." He said rumours about CEO Brian Hall being ousted are unconfirmed, but "seeing as though NSM has posted negative earnings for about four to five straight quarters... it is quite likely that he will get the boot." Cyrix engineers are not organised in different factions, he insists. "There are no factions here at Cyrix who are trying to create a start up company of their own as a result of the poor performance of National as a whole. Again, another mistruth." ®