AMD talked to NVidia about aquisition before getting ATI

[thilanliyan]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brianca...nvidia-about-acquisition-before-grabbing-ati/

Originally posted at:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...-About-Acquisition-Before-Grabbing-ATI-Forbes

I wonder if ATI would be in a stronger financial position today as an independent?

 

[taltamir]

I remember hearing that years ago.
Before the AMD/ATI merger went through there was all this buzz about an AMD nVidia merger that fell through because both companie's CEOs were too stubborn.

 

[Cookie Monster]

I remember back in those days, AMD and nVIDIA had quite the partnership especially for the chipset business. It would have made more sense for AMD to merge with nVIDIA given the synergy between the two companies but guess it just didn't work out.

 

[f1sherman]

Yeah that was 2006.
Nowdays Nvidia is 2x bigger then AMD.

 

[formulav8]

That is pretty much commonly known. Jen wanted to be ceo no matter what. As much as I dislike the guy he would have been better than Ruinz

 

[tincart]

That is pretty much commonly known. Jen wanted to be ceo no matter what. As much as I dislike the guy he would have been better than Ruinz

AMD has had trouble getting their products to market in decent time, and you think leadership from nVidia would have helped with that?

 

[Idontcare]

That is pretty much commonly known. Jen wanted to be ceo no matter what. As much as I dislike the guy he would have been better than Ruinz

Agreed, I think JHH would have clearly been the lesser of the evils (corporate ethics-wise, Ruiz really was ethically challenged, irony) and the shareholders would have been much better off.

Not sure what kind of work environment it would have created for the AMD employees though. I suspect JHH is more like Steve Jobs in the tyrant sense, probably was more enjoyable to work under Ruiz and Dirk even if it meant your job security was non-existent.

 

[thilanliyan]

Agreed, I think JHH would have clearly been the lesser of the evils (corporate ethics-wise, Ruiz really was ethically challenged, irony) and the shareholders would have been much better off.

Don't people in business schools have to take any ethics courses? It seems like they're the ones that need it most lol.

I had to do it as an engineer, and I haven't forgotten it.

 

[tincart]

Don't people in business schools have to take any ethics courses? It seems like they're the ones that need it most lol.

I have taught business ethics to business students (and students in many other majors). Many of the students express open contempt for the content.

 

[IlllI]

AMD has had trouble getting their products to market in decent time, and you think leadership from nVidia would have helped with that?

yes. he would have opened up a can of whoop-ass on those engineers

 

[Blitzvogel]

I have taught business ethics to business students (and students in many other majors). Many of the students express open contempt for the content.

Greed is good, yeah? :sneaky:

 

[postmortemIA]

Considering that AMD has struggled with getting decent CEO ever since, I think they blew it.

 

[tviceman]

The landscape would be really different today if that happened. Would AMD/Nvidia still have gone for mobile computing via ARM? Would Nvidia have continued their big die strategy and passive node advancement? Would ATI have been able to turn it around and get the hd4800 and hd5800 series out so quickly and successfully? Just how many licks exactly does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

 

[badb0y]

JHH would have been better for AMD.

This new guy seems promising.

 

[thilanliyan]

I have taught business ethics to business students (and students in many other majors). Many of the students express open contempt for the content.

That's sad to hear. Making money is fine, and it's possible to make money without being unethical. I suppose there is always the chance you will make MORE by being unethical, I guess that's the draw.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

This new guy seems promising.

Maybe for AMD the company, but for AMD's last few generations fan base... Not so much. He's effectively destroyed AMD's price/performance reputation for me in two releases the 7xxx series and bulldozer are both not reflective of what many of us came to love about AMD in the past.

 

[thilanliyan]

Maybe for AMD the company, but for AMD's last few generations fan base... Not so much.

AMD needs to make money, and the "fan base" should understand that. They can't just keep pushing price/performance forever. They need to make money that they can invest in R&D to actually compete.

 

[blackened23]

Maybe for AMD the company, but for AMD's last few generations fan base... Not so much. He's effectively destroyed AMD's price/performance reputation for me in two releases the 7xxx series and bulldozer are both not reflective of what many of us came to love about AMD in the past.

Oh good grief. Nvidia were clearly saints about pricing their 285, 480 and 580. As far as the pricing it may have to do a lot with the increased wafer cost of 28nm and yields, there is a lot of speculation that GK104 will cost more than what some are anticipating because of those reasons. We shall see I suppose.

 

[Justinat0r]

AMD needs to make money, and the "fan base" should understand that. They can't just keep pushing price/performance forever. They need to make money that they can invest in R&D to actually compete.

THIS. AMD will be competitive with pricing when Nvidia releases something that they need to compete against. Right now, AMD cards are king and they're enjoying that status by charging a hefty price. If you're really that price conscious then I'd recommend waiting until the Kepler cards come out so AMD/Nvidia are forced to duke it out in pricing. If Kepler comes out and they're really just fantastic cards which top AMD's line up by ~7-10% then I'd be willing to bet AMD will fall right back into their price/performance position, offering solid cards which undercut Nvidia's pricing with nearly the same performance.

 

[formulav8]

That's sad to hear. Making money is fine, and it's possible to make money without being unethical. I suppose there is always the chance you will make MORE by being unethical, I guess that's the draw.

That is one of the most upsetting things to me in this world. I absolutely hate it when a company, who will no matter what, try to get away with putting money before a person. To me there is no amount of money I would take if it meant being a greedy gut and stomp all over the person.

What is bad as well, is when people acknowledge something is very wrong, unethical, and outright condemn it; but if it was to get money, they're like "well that makes it fine to do then since it was to make more money). :thumbsdown:

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Oh good grief. Nvidia were clearly saints about pricing their 285, 480 and 580.

Nobody ever said that, stop being that guy already.

My comment had as much to do with their cpus as it did their gpus.

Nvidia was never known as the price performance company, ever.

 

[taltamir]

That is one of the most upsetting things to me in this world. I absolutely hate it when a company, who will no matter what, try to get away with putting money before a person. To me there is no amount of money I would take if it meant being a greedy gut and stomp all over the person.

Companies don't do that, companies are fictional entities for the purpose of limiting liability. The decisions to be greedy or other wrongdoings are done ultimately by people. The CEO, the board of directors, etc.

 

[formulav8]

Either way its sad and upsetting how people can treat other people.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

People are killed everyday for less, you should probably not consider that though if this makes you sad

 

[formulav8]

Of course I know that. Since when is a business supposed or allowed to be criminal or jealous or hostile or war or wickedness or sickness or godless or inhumane. There is a difference. Uggg. Sorry for the off-topicness. I speak no more about it.

Anyways, as already mentioned nvidia was most likely the first AMD interviewed about buying. JHH apparently wanted to be the big boy after the buy out, but the board, and of course, 'Ruinz everything' wasn't happy about that. So they went and bought out ATI. Way overspent though. Overall, I definitely think the ATI purchase was wise and much more a success for AMD overall. We are just now seeing the benefits. If Intel wasn't mooching off NVidia then AMD would be highly above Intel right now in certain areas. But unfortunately for AMD, Intel has the cash to force their way to compete.