SCHLUMBERGER &lt;SLB> MAY HAVE ALTERNATE BUYER

  Schlumberger Ltd most likely has an
  alternate buyer lined up for its Fairchild Semiconductor unit,
  Wall Street analysts said.
      "I think its clear that in cancelling its agreement with
  Fujitsu, Schlumberger has signaled that it has another deal in
  the works," said Paul Johnson, a semiconductor analyst with
  L.F. Rothschild.
      "There are unquestionably other buyers out there," added
  Kidder Peabody analyst Adam F. Cuhney. "A lot of companies have
  looked at Fairchild and would be willing to buy it."
      Among the companies that would be interested in bidding for
  Fairchild are Advanced Micro Devices &lt;AMD>, Sunnyvale, Calif.,
  and LSI Logic Corp &lt;LLSI>, Milpitas, Calif., industry analysts
  said.
      Top U.S. chipmakers like National Semiconductor Corp &lt;NSM>,
  Texas Instruments Inc &lt;TXN> and Motorola Inc &lt;MOT> might also
  seek to buy Fairchild, but could possibly run into antitrust
  problems, the analysts added.
      Moreover, Fairchild's management is thought to be
  considering proposing a leveraged buyout of the Cupertino,
  Calif., company, analysts said.
      In a brief statement announcing the termination of the
  agreement with Fujitsu, Schlumberger said the decision opened
  up other possibilities, including a possible buyout by
  Fairchild management.
      The company said it ended the deal, in which Fujitsu would
  have bought 80 pct of Fairchild for an estimated 200 mln dlrs,
  because rising opposition to the deal by the Reagan
  administration made it unlikely that the sale could be
  completed within a reasonable period of time.
      Analysts questioned this explanation, however, arguing that
  the companies did not need government approval to complete the
  transaction. Both Schlumberger and Fujitsu are foreigned-owned
  companies.
      "Schlumberger would not have terminated the deal because
  the U.S. government didn't want it," said Johnson of L.F.
  Rothschild.
      A spokesman for Schlumberger declined to elaborate on the
  company's news release.
      He said only that the company was reviewing a number of
  possible alternatives for the Fairchild unit.
      Officials at Fairchild and Fujitsu were not immediately
  available for comment.
      Analysts noted the significance of the government's
  apparent success in preventing Fujitsu from taking control of
  Fairchild.
      Administration officials, including Commerce Secretary
  Malcolm Baldrige and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger,
  feared that the sale to Fujitsu would lead to Japanese control
  of key semiconductor technology for supercomputers and military
  weapons systems.
      "The government really stood up for the semiconductor
  industry," said Johnson of L.F. Rothschild. "That, I think, is
  the real significance of this."
      Consequently, analysts said, the Japanese government might
  now feel more pressure to address U.S. complaints about
  Japanese chipmakers' violation of the semiconductor trade
  agreement signed last summer.
  

