In a surprising twist in the IBM/GlobalFoundries negotiations, Bloomberg News reported this morning that IBM was actually willing to pay GlobalFoundries to take its faltering chip manufacturing division, which includes its Essex Junction plant, off its hands before talks collapsed. 

In months of reporting on talks between the companies, speculation centered on IBM, which is evolving into  a services-oriented company, trying to sell its chip-manufacturing business to Emirate of Abu Dhabi-owned GlobalFoundries, which specializes in chip-manufacturing. Bloomberg reported that the two companies were nearing a deal before talks collapsed in July.

But the nature of those negotiations may have been misunderstood.

Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg today reported that IBM was willing to give GF $1 billion to take the chip manufacturing unit, but GF demanded $2 billion:

"IBM’s willingness to pay underscores the urgency for Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty to get less profitable businesses off the books," Bloomberg reported. "Even so, letting the deal unravel shows Rometty wasn’t willing to exit at any cost."

"With the talks breaking down, the chip-manufacturing business will continue to weigh on IBM’s profit. The unit loses as much as $1.5 billion a year, a person familiar with the matter said in June. Rometty is striving to meet 2015 earnings goals after nine straight quarters of falling revenue."

The story did not detail why IBM would choose to spend a chunk of change offloading the chip-manufacturing division, instead of shutting it down, though Bloomberg noted that, under the original talks, GlobalFoundries would have acted as a supplier for IBM's microprocessors.

The Shumlin administration is parting ways with CGI, the vendor that built Vermont's still-incomplete health insurance exchange, Vermont Health Connect.

The decision to end the contract is "mutual," according to Mark Larson, commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access. He announced the news at a press conference this morning, alongside Lawrence Miller, whom Gov. Peter Shumlin recently appointed as chief of health care reform.

CGI has already received $57 million of Vermont's $83 million contract and, under the agreement, the Canadian company will leave the Green Mountain State with another $9.7 million, according to Miller. He noted that 97 percent of the exchange cost is federally funded.

Since the federal government ditched CGI in January, many Vermonters have been clamoring for state officials to do the same. Miller acknowledged that people will view the step as long overdue. 

"There's no doubt in my mind that the biggest question is going to be, 'Why the hell didn't you do this months ago?'" he said.

For months, GlobalFoundries was reportedly negotiating a deal to buy IBM's chip-making unit. Now, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi-owned company appears to be poaching Big Blue's Vermont employees.

GlobalFoundries will hold a job fair Tuesday evening, August 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel & Conference Center, according to spokesman Travis Bullard. It's one of "a couple of job fair events in various locations next week," Bullard says.

The company is hiring for its state-of-the-art Fab 8 microchip foundry in Malta, N.Y., just south of Saratoga Springs. Construction began at the facility in 2009 and continues to grow. It employed 2,400 people in June, Bullard said at the time, and could employ as many as 3,000 by the end of the year. 

Vermont PBS has been fined $15,000 for failing to provide public notice of meetings. 

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting levied the fine yesterday after investigating a complaint that the station's board met numerous times without proper notice.

Some of those meetings followed a former female employee's complaint that former president and CEO John King repeatedly directed sexually explicit remarks at her and engaged in other inappropriate behavior.

CPB found that the board did not post proper notice of some of those  meetings on its website, running afoul of open meeting rules that require government bodies to convene in public with advance notice.

Vermont PBS, formerly known as Vermont Public Television, said it would pay the fine through income it generates through commercial license agreements with radio and cellular providers, and not from viewer donations.

CPB declined to impose penalties that would have affected the station's ability to participate in federal grant programs.  CPB provides roughly 16 percent of Vermont PBS's $7.7 million operating budget.