[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="628"] Exterior of GlobalFoundries computer chip factory Monday afternoon, Oct. 20, 2014, at Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)[/caption]

The state's top elected official also hailed the combination.

"This was the best possible outcome that preserves New York jobs and ensures that obligations made to the state are kept," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "GlobalFoundries and IBM are both world-class companies, and I look forward working with them to continue New York's rich legacy of innovation."

Despite the sale of its manufacturing operations, IBM has committed $3 billion over the next five years in chip research at its labs worldwide, much of it expected here in Albany and Yorktown Heights in Westchester County.

Kaloyeros believes the sale was possible because of the hundreds of millions of dollars in state investment at SUNY Poly, which also helped to bring GlobalFoundries to Malta in 2009.

The combination enabled IBM to hand off manufacturing to GlobalFoundries and focus on innovation, which is the company's hallmark.

"It is the primary reason for this deal," Kaloyeros said Monday.

Shares of IBM fell nearly $13, or 7.1 percent, Monday because of disappointing quarterly results, which included the massive accounting charge for the sale to GlobalFoundries.

The company also said it was not certain that it would reach earnings of $20 per share in 2015 as it had previously planned.

More than 5,000 IBM employees from New York and Vermont will become GlobalFoundries employees, although the companies would not specify how many of those jobs are at IBM's chip factory in East Fishkill.

However, some Vermont IBM employees may be moving to Saratoga County, where GlobalFoundries operates its Fab 8 factory, currently home to nearly 3,000 workers.

That may be one of the reasons why GlobalFoundries recently opened a small office only a few miles from the IBM chip factory outside Burlington.

"We will ask some of the employees (in Vermont) to consider moving to Malta," GlobalFoundries CEO Sanjay Jha said Monday.

And U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer said he'd work to keep the East Fishkill plant open.

"Earlier today I spoke to the CEO of GlobalFoundries and top executives at IBM, and made it clear to them that my number-one priority was protecting these critical jobs in the Hudson Valley," Schumer said Monday. "I will continue to do whatever I can to help this facility remain open, operating and strong."

By next year, GlobalFoundries expects to have spent a total of $12 billion at Fab 8 in Malta since it broke ground at the campus in 2009, with likely more investment to support the new business from the IBM deal.

GlobalFoundries was especially interested in 800 "core technologists" that it will get from IBM, presumably scientists and engineers that have helped make IBM the leading developer of new ways to make chips smaller and operate faster.

The deal, signed over the weekend, had been rumored since last year but has had several stops and starts.

The rationale always appeared to make sense. IBM's semiconductor business, which makes chips for its own products, lost $700 million in 2013, even with $1.4 billion in revenue from outside customers.

The main reason for that is because of volume. IBM simply wasn't making enough chips to make its expensive manufacturing operation profitable.

However, GlobalFoundries, which has hundreds of customers, has numerous chip factories in Singapore and Germany in addition to Fab 8, and is likely to try to grow the business IBM had been doing.

"Scale is critical to the economics," said Kelly, the IBM director of research, in a call with reporters on Monday. "GlobalFoundries will invest in scale, and IBM will invest in systems. It will drive our collective futures."

GlobalFoundries will now have more than 8,000 employees in New York and Vermont, making it the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the Northeast.

IBM said it would share with GlobalFoundries its work being done at SUNY Poly in Albany, including its chip patents.

Those innovations will eventually be transferred to Fab 8, where the most advanced chips of the future will be made. Chips will continue to be made in Vermont and East Fishkill.

Tom Caulfield, the general manager for Fab 8, who previously worked at IBM, called the combination of IBM's Albany and Malta operations "Malbany."

"It's a tremendous, tremendous win for New York state," Caulfield said in an interview with the Times Union.

Not everyone is celebrating, says Lee Conrad, national coordinator for Alliance@IBM, an IBM union organizing group formed by the CWA. IBM workers are not unionized, but the group tracks layoffs and supports employee rights. "It is sad that IBM continues to shed business units and employees," Conrad said. "Instead of Big Blue it should be Little Blue."

IBM reiterated that it would meet state requirements that it keep 3,100 employees in the state through 2016.

IBM will also keep its Montreal chip-packaging facility that gets chips ready for installation in IBM hardware.

lrulison@timesunion.com • 518-454-5504 • @larryrulison