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Intel to Buy Chip Factory: Intel Corp. said it plans to spend about $1.5 billion to buy and refurbish a Colorado computer chip factory from Rockwell International Corp. Neither company would disclose the purchase price for the vacant plant in Colorado Springs. Intel expects the factory to eventually employ more than 1,000 people. Intel said that by year-end it expects the factory to begin manufacturing “flash memory,” the constantly powered memory that holds control codes for basic functions of personal computers.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., also said it will cut as much as 20% from the cost of making its Celeron chips and 50% from the cost of Pentium IIIs by year-end. Narrowing the width of the chips’ circuitry, as well as new packaging, will reduce the costs of producing the two processors used to power personal computers, Intel Chief Financial Officer Andy Bryant told investors at the Banc of America Securities conference in San Francisco.

Intel’s stock closed down $1.38 at $100.06 on Nasdaq.