Forbes is reporting that National Semiconductor is ripe for takeover. According to the magazine, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments (TI) could acquire NatSemi. The magazine says that NatSemi has rid itself of divisions which lose money and wants to re-invent itself as an analogue and DSP business. (See Forbes story) The reports suggest that TI and STMicroelectronics are interested in lucrative NatSemi customers including Nokia and Ericcson. But the cost of NatSemi would be something approaching $7 billion on current market valuation. That could make a takeover prohibitive. ®