Topic: AMD to purchase ATI

[Dracho]

This will be.. interesting..


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) said Monday it will pay $5.4 billion to acquire top graphics chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. (ATYT), as Intel Corp. (INTC)'s biggest rival in the market for personal-computer microprocessors attempts to expand its product portfolio.

The AMD-ATI marriage could shift the balance of power in the chip industry in significant ways. AMD's product portfolio - which has remained limited to the microprocessors that act as a PC's main calculating engine - would balloon overnight, as it folds in two major new chip categories.

Markham, Ontario-based ATI, which makes chipsets and graphics chips for PCs, also makes a host of semiconductors for consumer products, such high definition TVs and cell phones.

The new offerings would broaden AMD's package of products as it takes on Intel, the world's biggest chip maker that has long supplied a wider portfolio. In addition to supplying microprocessors, Intel, the world's biggest chip maker, sells so-called chipsets, which connect a microprocessor to a PC's other core components. It also sells graphics chips, which power images rendered by computer games and internet video.

Under terms approved unanimously by both companies' boards of directors, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD will pay $4.2 billion in cash and 57 million AMD shares to acquire all of ATI's outstanding stock, according to a news release.

Based on AMD's closing share price of $18.21 on Friday, the deal valued ATI's shares at $20.47, a premium of almost 24 percent compared with ATI's Friday's closing price of $16.56 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. ATI shares surged almost 17 percent to $19.32 in pre-market trading after the news. AMD shares fell more than 6 percent to $17.10.

AMD, which has been shelling out billions to add factory capacity so it can better compete with Intel Corp., will pay for the acquisition with the help of a $2.5 billion loan from Morgan Stanley. (MS)

AMD expects the deal to contribute "slightly" to earnings next year and add "meaningfully" to profit by 2008. The purchase will save the combined company about $75 million by the end of 2007.

An acquisition of ATI "would make AMD a bigger player with a more diversified portfolio," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with research firm Insight 64. It "would certainly put AMD on a more equal footing relative to Intel."

The deal also put competitive pressure on Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), the other dominant maker of graphics chips. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia has competed against Intel in selling chipsets and graphics chips while counting on AMD for sales of those products.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060724/D8J2C3AGE.html

[Nemesis]

Link to the old discussion when this was first discussed.

[E_Look]

This is not necessarily good.

[Just plain old Punisher]

We'll see what they produce.

[EmeraldEdge]

I was reading a different article on the subject and it mentioned that Intel has cancelled crossfire support for some of it's upcoming lines.  Couple that with the fact that it mentioned that AMD wanted to look into the possability of running programs off of a GPU and you've got some very interesting times ahead.  I'm not sure they will be good, but you never know.  Personally I would rather have had an AMD-nVidia merger, as I'm not a fan of ATI but we'll see what happens.  I'm looking at putting together an AMD system at the moment with an nVidia gpu, perhaps it will be the last of it's kind if lines are drawn in the sand.

[Nemesis]

I was reading a different article on the subject and it mentioned that Intel has cancelled crossfire support for some of it's upcoming lines. 

They really don't have much choice but to cancel Crossfire as they cancelled the ATi license for the Intel processor bus.  Since I'm pretty sure they got Crossfire in exchange cancelling one cancells the other.  This also means that Intel no longer has a solution to compete with nVideas SLI system.

The new Conroe chip so far I've only seen tested on Intel motherboards with a new memory controller.  I suspect that without that memory controller or equivalent the Conroe chip will lose substantial performance.  So the question is can nVidea equal that memory controller with their SLI chipsets for Conroe?  If not will AMDs CPUs take over the gaming crown by having efficient SLI and Crossfire with no Intel compatible competitor?

Couple that with the fact that it mentioned that AMD wanted to look into the possability of running programs off of a GPU and you've got some very interesting times ahead.  I'm not sure they will be good, but you never know. 

AMD has some interesting plans with various partners.  They are allowing other companies to make chips that will fit in an Opteron socket so you can have a multi CPU system with an Opteron in socket 0 and other specialized chips in one or more of the other sockets.  I wonder if a modified ATi GPU will fit in such a socket and what it will be capable of?

Personally I would rather have had an AMD-nVidia merger, as I'm not a fan of ATI but we'll see what happens.  I'm looking at putting together an AMD system at the moment with an nVidia gpu, perhaps it will be the last of it's kind if lines are drawn in the sand.

I'd rather not have any merger I prefer maximized competition.

nVidea makes chipsets for Intel even though Intel makes competing chipsets.  I don't see any good reason why they should stop making for AMD.  AMD would be crazy to not give nVidea full cooperation as they always have.

What I'd like to see is VIA make the C series chips capable of competing head to head with Intel and AMD CPUs.

[E_Look]

... What I'd like to see is VIA make the C series chips capable of competing head to head with Intel and AMD CPUs.

Now there's something I can support.  One more viable CPU manufacturer would TRULY drive quality up and prices down, even if only a little.