Equity firms buy up Freescale

Motorola’s semiconductor spin-off, Freescale, on Friday announced its acquisition by a private equity consortium for a total of $17.6bn (£9.4bn).

The consortium is led by The Blackstone Group, and includes The Carlyle Group, Permira Funds and Texas Pacific Group.

The board of directors of Freescale has unanimously approved the merger agreement and will recommend that Freescale’s stockholders adopt the agreement.

Motorola spun-off Freescale in July 2004.