ATI to be takeover by a bigger company?

[AthlonXP1800]

ATI a takeover target? (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050709-5077.html)

For some months here was talked about Intel interested in making videocards to compete with ATI and Nvidia, now ATI are in very weaker position, it look like Intel are serious interest to takeover ATI so Intel can have every tools to develop high end Intel videocards with integrated ATI technologies to compete with Nvidia. It may be the end of ATI just like no new 3dfx products after Nvidia acquired 3dfx, parts of 3dfx Rampage technology end up integrated into NV40.

[MUYA]

Microsoft could buy em out too? Maybe NV? :p I doubt it but it's early days ...or it won't happen.

[anzak]

I don't see this happening. Ya never know though. :bleh:

Microsoft could buy em out?

For xbox tech maybe. Other than the xbox microsoft isn't interested in hardware. Controlling both hardware and software would lead to another illegal monopoly.

[retsam]

well what companies that we knowof, would have the capital and interest to do such a thing

nvidia... not enuff capitol and then they run into antitrust

intel... plenty of capital but they dont have the talent in graphics. and there have been people saying that graphics are becomeing more general purpose. this shortfalling could make intel uptight.

m$ .... well the do have plenty of capital.... but i think the antitrust alone is enuff to keep them away

Ibm.... no way!! i work with ibm everyday and they dont want to make anything anymore. they just want to be involved in services...

sony... they certainly have the capital and need talent on the cutting edge of graphics for there playstation consoles... this round did expose them for that lacking...mmmm maybe.

what do you guys think....

[-=DVS=-]

I think we have to little competition , but if there was only one ! company for software and hardware , we had better games with no bugs :thinker: PC's would be like consoles but with Keyboard and mouse :eek:

[kev13dd]

I think the anti-trust thing is CRAP

You're forced into specializing one thing

If you have the money, EXPAND. If Microsoft has the talent to buy ATI and dominate the market, then why are we holding them back? I can see if they did it unfairly, but if they can dominate with pure talent or something, then let them

This is how people used to start. They expand as they get bigger. The more they succeed the more they aquire. I don't really want MS or Nvidia taking over ATI, but if they can, then let em

K

[Bad_Boy]

sony... they certainly have the capital and need talent on the cutting edge of graphics for there playstation consoles... this round did expose them for that lacking...mmmm maybe.


that would be crazy/wierd/interesting/any.other.word.im.missing lol

sony pays nvidia to make cards for the ps3
microsoft pays sony to put cards in their x360

if nvidia buys ati, all hell would break loose. and i would be among the first to invest my life savings into some nice stock :P

anyways, i doubt anything will happen to ati. but who knows. :p

[retsam]

If you have the money, EXPAND. If Microsoft has the talent to buy ATI and dominate the market, then why are we holding them back? I can see if they did it unfairly, but if they can dominate with pure talent or something, then let them
your in the wrong section of the forums to debait wheather libertarian ideas are right or wrong, and whether there should be some government controls in a capatalistic and open,free market place. im with ya on this thoe.... anyways back to the topic at hand...


that would be crazy/wierd/interesting/any.other.word.im.missing lol like i said i think sony has some gains here they could buy up ati but keep them as a seperate unit doing what they currently do ... remember sony also makes highend hdtv's and ati is great at making setop box chip which they also make for hdtv... i would bet if anyone has there eye on ati its sony. just for this last fact...
heheh this is fun speculating ...

[|MaguS|]

While I think Sony would be interesting I dout it ever would happen. Sony has alot invested in Nvidia, all thier Vaio PCs use either Intel OEM or Nvidia Chips. With the PS3 using Nvidia aswell, I don't see a reason to buy ATI unless they don't want to partner up with 3rd Parties anymore...

If anything I would think Sony would want to buy Nvidia who are considered the leaders of GPU technology. They have more then enough capital...

[rohit]

XGI can do this? Mabe S3 savage (or who ever the competitiors are).
Or some other Giant that has got nuthing to do with Grafics. Just like RedBull did, just to enter F1.

[AthlonXP1800]

well what companies that we knowof, would have the capital and interest to do such a thing

nvidia... not enuff capitol and then they run into antitrust

intel... plenty of capital but they dont have the talent in graphics. and there have been people saying that graphics are becomeing more general purpose. this shortfalling could make intel uptight.

m$ .... well the do have plenty of capital.... but i think the antitrust alone is enuff to keep them away

Ibm.... no way!! i work with ibm everyday and they dont want to make anything anymore. they just want to be involved in services...

sony... they certainly have the capital and need talent on the cutting edge of graphics for there playstation consoles... this round did expose them for that lacking...mmmm maybe.

what do you guys think....

Well you said Nvidia dont have enough money to takeover ATI, of course you are right but it is unneccessary for Nvidia to takeover ATI. Remember 5 years ago back to 18th December 2000's 3dfx black day when 3dfx broke up, Nvidia had agreed to acquired 3dfx's core graphics assets and 200 3dfx engineers for $112m, that very much alot less than what 3dfx was worth about $500m.

ATI, a canadian company is now worth $3.2bn, $500m less than it was worth a month ago because of poor Q3 2005 result, they now have working capital of less than $834m. By end of Aug for Q4 2005 result, it seem likely ATI will lose more money due to no new products, $10m fee for 2nd R520 tapeout but still have very low yield as well as Crossfire delay due to glitches etc. If within the next 11 months will continue with poor results then the shares will be plunge to $7 then $4 then crash to $1 will mean ATI will gone out of business and either break the company up or takeover by a bigger company, ATI is still stubborn just like a canadian company Commodore collapased 11 years made countless same mistakes and never learnt from it like ATI does now with products delay and NV30 0.13 micron low yield.

Nvidia, a $4.7bn company of course will not interest to takeover ATI but may will acquire ATI core graphics assets, ATI Research and 50 ATI engineers for $200m.

Intel, a $168bn company definitely could be interest to takeover the company for $3.2bn or maybe Intel will be rather acquire ATI core graphics assets, ATI Research and 50 ATI engineers for $200m.

Microsoft, a $271bn company definitely not interest to takeover the company but they will acquire R500/Xenos design as well as 3rd Xbox and next generation Xbox graphics chipset design for $7.5m.

IBM, a $127bn company definitely not interest to takeover the company, they quitted hardware business and focused on services software and have their own semiconductor plant.

Sony, a $34.7bn company will not interest to takeover the company but could interest to acquire ATI's setop business for $15m and develop, integrated it into Sony HDTVs.

Nintendo, a $15bn company definitely will not interest to takover the company but will acquire Flipper, Revolution and next generation GPU designs for $30m.

[nutball]

Didn't we hear similar rumours about NVIDIA being taken over in the post-NV30 days?

[ChrisRay]

Yes, and we also had some people posting that Nvidia was leaving the 3d acceleration business as well. Using quotes like "Nvidia is not just a graphic company".

[rohit]

I used to visit hardwareanalysis a lot those days. my gf4 was in a lot of trouble.and yes This Quote "Nvidia just cant do grafics without cheating" was all they knew then.

[kev13dd]

your in the wrong section of the forums to debait wheather libertarian ideas are right or wrong, and whether there should be some government controls in a capatalistic and open,free market place. im with ya on this thoe.... anyways back to the topic at hand...

Sorry, my point wasn't to debate, I was just trying to say that I don't think antitrust will keep either MS or Nvidia from being the possible people for a take over bid

Nvidia and ATI combined don't control the graphics market, Intel does. ATI and Nvidia control the upper level graphics, but that's not the majority

Microsoft can't get yelled at for antitrust for owning a graphics card company. Once again they wouldn't be dominating anything. Which is reason I don't think Microsoft would take over ATI

As for a takeover by anyone, I don't think it's happening. I think ATI is just falling right now. No one is trying to take them over, they're just floundering in the wind

K

[chaosmaker]

Microsoft would be interesting, one things for sure MS marketing team is a helluva lot better than ATI's, but when it comes to product release MS is just about as bad as anybody if not worse as far as release dates. It's ATI's fault for the rumors, they haven't helped themselves at all not one bit. Nvidia got it's name out there and kept it out there even during the bad times. ATI's downfall is not supporting their legacy products anymore, nvidia still supports their older products and the old OS's, ATI does not and if I had to guess, I would say this along with their marketing team are whats hurting them more than anything.

[TheTaz]

Maybe Creative Labs could buy ATi, and get even with nVidia for the nForce 1 415 / 420 D MCP and nForce 2 Soundstorm. :D

/snicker

... that was a joke, of course. :p

-Taz

[frenchy2k1]

M$, nintendo and Sony would not need to pay ANYTHING for the designs of the graphic chips in their console. They already have.

Last round, for the xbox, M$ got bitten badly by this. When they wanted to reduce the price of the xbox and were trying to force that reduction on nvidia, they got taken to court and had to pay the price agreed in the contract, as nvidia was fabbing the chips and selling them to M$.

This time, all the protagonist bought the DESIGN and they have to fab them directly. This means that THEY have to deal with the yield problems, but also that if yields improve or down the line (2-3 years) they go through a geometry reduction (to 65nm for example), they will benefit from the cost reduction.

So, for all they care, NV and ATI could die tomorrow, the next gen console would not been influenced.

--------

Intel has tried their hand in discrete graphics years ago and failed. Now, they lead thanks to their integrated chipset. I doubt that they would go for the high end.
Sony would not need ATI for the set top boxes. This is what the cell has been designed for. MPEG stream decoding and sound processing. And it is powerful enough for simple graphics.
ATI, so far, is too big to interest anyone and they are still far from dead. THEY may acquire someone to restart their failing production, as they did with ArtX that created the R9700 for them (and the flipper chip).

[tyx]

NOOOOOO!
If Ati gets bought over, we forget about anynew cards from Nvidia for the next 3 years and when it finally coems out 3 years later, its will cost US$999 :(
Thats what happens when theres no competition, you know, microsoft?

[Fotis]

I wish Intel would get in the high performance GPU race.That would be very interesting.
Anyway, I don't think Ati is in any danger.

[zoomy942]

i may not be a fan of ATI, i love the competition between ATI and nvidia. it keeps them inovating and trying new ideas. if ATI is somehow bought, it will be a situation similar to the sound card market. nvidia will have less of a need to be inventive, and thats bad for the market.

[Seph gPu]

I dont see ATI selling anytime soon.

[rohit]

well, i dont think ATi is dying. Actually the current r5xx is the descisive factor. If they struggle in performance + production, then pro'lly nuthing can help them, but r5xx looks strong (from what ive heard till now). Even if it flops, B3d and R3d are there for support. no one should worry.
There is still a lot of competition left!

[Treason]

I believe a two company market, nVidia and Intel would be perfect. Intel would still dominate the market with it's integrated graphic chipsets and nVidia would cater to the gamer. With ATi out of the picture, nVidia can really spread it's wings and control other markets, such as ATi's AIW line and mobility market.

I don't believe for one second that nVidia won't release a card for the next three years if this rumour is true. The gaming market is a billion dollar industry and developers won't sit idle with current tech.

ATi won't be bought up by a single company. It'll be broken up and dismembered and sold to various companies.

Hope it happens.

[Fotis]

I believe a two company market, nVidia and Intel would be perfect. Intel would still dominate the market with it's integrated graphic chipsets and nVidia would cater to the gamer. With ATi out of the picture, nVidia can really spread it's wings and control other markets, such as ATi's AIW line and mobility market.

I don't believe for one second that nVidia won't release a card for the next three years if this rumour is true. The gaming market is a billion dollar industry and developers won't sit idle with current tech.

ATi won't be bought up by a single company. It'll be broken up and dismembered and sold to various companies.

Hope it happens.
keep dreaming! :rolleyes: