Filed under: Hardware
AMD acquires ATI for $5.4 billion
AMD, the #2 CPU maker in the world, has announced a purchase of ATI, a leading graphics card manufacturer, for $5.4 billion. IMG has more details on the buyout and the business end of things, but we're more interested in finding out what exactly this means for the Mac market. ATI currently supplies the graphics hardware in a good portion of Apple's machines, including the MacBook Pro I'm typing this on and my wife's iMac, so here's hoping ATI makes enough money from working with Apple to keep AMD - an arch rival to Intel - happy. Stay tuned for more details as they develop.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Josh said 1:17PM on 7-24-2006
More interesting, I think, is the question of whether the partnership between Apple and Intel over processors features any non-compete agreement that would prevent Apple from purchasing anything from AMD. The ATI standalone cards don't directly compete with Intel, but since integrated AMD/ATI offerings will, Otellini and the boys might not like it.
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maijc said 2:42PM on 7-24-2006
yay, Nvidia Cards for Macs!!!
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Liam Billington said 3:15PM on 7-24-2006
I think this could prompt next gen MacBooks to have Nvidia GPU's.
Intel won't like Apple using ATI GPU's, and Apple isn't likely to switch to AMD processors. ATI will have a brief share of Apple and Microsoft, both will not like to piss off their partner- intel.
ATI has had it's license to make Intel motherboards revoked, as reported on the inquirer.
The only thing which would make Apple switch to AMD is K8L and a very, very good discount on AMD+ATI combo chips.
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Robert said 4:52PM on 7-24-2006
AMD hasn't acquired anything yet. The entire deal hasn't even been approved by stockholders from either company or regulatory agencies in either Canada or the U.S..
For the sake of accuracy, AMD PLANS to acquire ATI.
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