IBM Said Near Deal With Globalfoundries for Chip-Making

International Business Machines Corp. is nearing a deal with Globalfoundries Inc. for its chip-manufacturing business, according to people familiar with the matter, after searching for a buyer for the money-losing unit since last year.

Globalfoundries is primarily interested in acquiring IBM’s engineers and intellectual property rather than manufacturing facilities, which have little value as they are more than a decade old, said people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Globalfoundries, which has its own plant in New York state and a technology joint development project with IBM, will act as a supplier for IBM’s microprocessors, the people said. Terms of the deal weren’t available.