I seem to recall comments to the effect that intel didnt need the CPU business anymore because the flash memory business would enable them to buy AMD out of hand if they felt like it.
Says here, "a deal that allows the U.S. chipmaker to concentrate on its main business" .. which is what, exactly, now?
ARM is chipping away at x86, TSMC is deeper in the nodes... the only thing they really have doing for them is being US based.