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Intel plays poker with Flash card sale

Centennial picks up division for $16 million

When bits of its business don't fly or have outlived their purpose, Intel has no hesitation in getting rid of them. Yesterday, the chip giant sold its tiny Flash memory card business to Centennial for $16 million, while reiterating that will have no effect on its Flash memory production, which is a lucrative money spinner for the firm. Centennial will pick up the PC card and mini-card section that Intel made, which many people will have forgotten that the chip giant was even involved in. The Flash card unit has probably served its purpose for Intel. Some years back, Intel took a big interest in the PC Card market, with senior executive Steve Nachtsheim being regularly seen at industry forums. One executive of Psion Dacom met Natchtsheim at a PC conference in Nice, France and was surprised to be told by the Intel suit that his own company had better get out of the PC Card business and fast. The reasoning behind Nachtsheim's advice was that the future of PC Cards wasn't in cards at all, but in modem software stacks. Intel did not say how many jobs would be affected by the sale of its unit to Centennial, which paid $6 million in cash and around 16 per cent of shares in the firm. ® <

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