When the company was trying to fight off a hostile acquisition by a temporary alliance of GEC and Siemens in the late 1980s, Plessey used its newly built semiconductor fab near Plymouth as one of the arguments to press politicians as to why it was important for the company to stay in one piece. Managers at the site pointed out the advanced features, for the time, that the fab employed and the care that went into its design. Even the site was carefully chosen for its geological properties: stable rock formations in a country not known for earthquakes, unlike the other epicentres of chipmaking at the time on the US west coast and in Japan.
The acquisition went through anyway and the Roborough fab did not remain under GEC management for very long. However, it is still running. After passing through numerous owners following the initial sale to Canadian telecom supplier Mitel in 1996, the Plessey name eventually returned to the fab, though this was a completely...