Apple admits to Imagination Technologies talks, declines takeover bid

Apple A9 with Imagination Technologies GPU cores

Apple on Tuesday acknowledged having held discussions with British graphics processor design firm Imagination Technologies, but the iPhone maker has reportedly chosen not to attempt an acquisition — for now.

Sources at the company admitted that "some discussions" with Imagination Technologies have taken place, according to Bloomberg, but Apple does not "plan to make an offer for the company at this time."

Apple already owns nearly 10 percent of Imagination, which has long supplied graphics chips for Apple's iOS device lineup.

Word of a possible takeover first surfaced earlier Tuesday. The two companies were said to have engaged in "advanced talks" for what would essentially amount to a lifeboat for the struggling chipmaker.

Facing increasing competition from companies like ARM and nVidia, Imagination has struggled in recent years as it attempted to expand its product line. A recently announced restructuring will see the company shed hundreds of jobs and refocus its efforts on the golden goose PowerVR mobile graphics chipsets.

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7 Comments

mcdave 1927 comments · 19 Years

About 8 years ago

I take it this means Apple are developing their own graphics IP. Surely they wouldn't risk a key part of their Ax processors vanishing though I'm sure with VR take three imgtech are set up pretty well.

quinney 2527 comments · 18 Years

Maybe Apple will buy them after they lay off everyone not working on mobile graphics. It would look bad if Apple bought the whole company and did the layoffs.

hmurchison 11809 comments · 23 Years

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/30/apple-continues-building-out-its-ios-gpu-development-team-in-orlando

Apple describes its Orlando operations as a "world-class" graphics intellectual property development team.

Apple moving to its own IP is inevitable. Within the next 3 generations I'm betting that Apple delivers its own GPU core. Imagination is a god
IP buy but it likely contains a lot of stuff that Apple doesn't want/need.

hammerd2 50 comments · 11 Years

hmurchison said:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/30/apple-continues-building-out-its-ios-gpu-development-team-in-orlando

Apple describes its Orlando operations as a "world-class" graphics intellectual property development team.

Apple moving to its own IP is inevitable. Within the next 3 generations I'm betting that Apple delivers its own GPU core. Imagination is a god
IP buy but it likely contains a lot of stuff that Apple doesn't want/need.

I find it really helps if you have a clue before commenting. The Orlando team will be about customising the PowerVR IP (as they do with ARM because Apple also have a PowerVR architecture license) not developing its own GPU. That is really very hard to do and extremely expensive, not to mention that it would have to be compatible with what they're already using !

Imagination (IMG) IP is already hugely tailored to Apple's needs and various family members are tailored almost specifically to them.

I guarantee that the only way Apple will have its own GPU within 3 generations will be by buying IMG.

quinney said:

Maybe Apple will buy them after they lay off everyone not working on mobile graphics. It would look bad if Apple bought the whole company and did the layoffs.

Agreed. Unless someone else bids in the meantime Apple can't now bid again for another 6 months due to stock exchange rules. The process of shedding the cash guzzling non-core parts of the company will take about that long.