Former employees of STMicroelectronics that had been part of the IBM Alliance in Albany appear to have gotten new jobs locally after the Swiss-based computer chip company left the research consortium that includes GlobalFoundries, Samsung and IBM.
The company eliminated 450 jobs and spent $48 million on restructuring costs as part of its exit of the IBM Alliance, which will save the company $100 million a year. Many were located at IBM in East Fishkill and in Albany at SUNY Polytechnic Institute.
STMicro’s departure from the IBM Alliance came about the time that IBM offloaded its chip factories in East Fishkill and Vermont to GlobalFoundries.
The restructuring took place in the second quarter of 2015.
“The company recorded in the first half of 2015 $48 million of restructuring charges and other related closure costs, corresponding primarily to employee voluntary termination benefits and including termination fees in connection with the exit from the IBM technology alliance,” the company wrote in a filing with federal securities regulators.
Back in 2007, STMicro announced a research partnership on 32-nanometer and 22-nanometer chips. The joint venture included STMicro putting research teams in East Fishkill at IBM’s Semiconductor Research and Development Center and in Albany at SUNY Poly. GlobalFoundries now owns that East Fishkill fab.
Jerry Gretzinger, a spokesman for SUNY Poly, said that all the IBM Alliance jobs in Albany are with GlobalFoundries and IBM.
However, the LinkedIn accounts of several STMicro employees indicate they worked in at SUNY Poly Albany as part of the IBM Alliance until recently – and have found new jobs within SUNY Poly, which works with the IBM Alliance as well.
For instance, Muhsin Celik is a former STMicro executive who helped manage the IBM Alliance in Albany dating back to 2013. He now works for GlobalFoundries in a similar role, according to his LinkedIn page.
And Nicolas Loubet is a former STMicro senior engineer who worked at the IBM Alliance in Albany who is now working for IBM at SUNY Poly.