The Inmos Saga
By Mick McLean & Tom Rowland
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The story of the personalities, the political in-fighting at Westminster and the big finance that underscored the birth of the UK semiconductor industry as it struggled to compete against better resourced and more flexible US companies. Plus a guide to the technology issues and research.
The irony was that every minister the Tories put into the DTI with instructions to get rid of the flagship Inmos - it was State-owned - went native on them and offered it more support. 
Thorn EMI (His Master’s Voice) eventually buys Inmos. “Let’s hope he does not bury it,” one observer comments. In fact Inmos survived much longer than EMI. |
The Privitisation ward. Norman Tebbit and Margaret Thatcher conspire to butcher Inmos 
“I could have sworn it still had some meat left on it when we gave it to him”, Thatcher whispers to Tebbit when Thorn EMI demands its money back. |