[extremetech] AMD talks with private equity firm Silver Lake fell through: Report

[desprado]

Earlier this month, we reported AMD would reorganize and restructure its entire graphics unit, as well as rumors that Silver Lake, a private equity firm, was interested in acquiring a substantial share of the company. We had reason to think a deal like this might well have been in the cards, but now reports indicate that the meeting may have fallen apart due to a failure to agree on a strategy that was acceptable to the private equity firm.
AMD was in talks to sell roughly 25% of itself to Silver Lake Management, but that negotiations are currently on-hold due to differences in strategy and overall cost, Bloomberg reports. AMD has good reason to push for as high a price as it can get, seeing as the company’s future largely depends on securing a lifeline until the launch of Zen, its next-generation CPU architecture that’s not expected until 2016. AMD wasn’t willing to comment on the current specifics of its situation, and neither was Silver Lake, for obvious reasons.
The fact that the talks are described as “stalled,” rather than dead, could signify that both companies still hope to head back to the table or that one is bringing pressure on the other. It’s still possible that AMD will come to an agreement with Silver Lake.
It’s not surprising to us, however, that the two companies might be having difficulty coming up with a solid plan forward. As we discussed earlier this year, any attempt to split AMD’s graphics and CPU divisions is going to run into serious trouble. The companies are intertwined in a manner that will make it very difficult to spin one side off from the other, and AMD’s ability to continue as a manufacturer of x86 chips is anything but guaranteed in the event of an external acquisition. You could, perhaps, cleave off the GPU assets entirely — but only at the cost of abandoning the CPU division.

When Rory Read resigned from AMD nearly a year ago, it looked as though he’d set the company on a path to further success. Increasingly, this appears not to be the case. Keller has left, the ARM-based K12 CPU is nowhere to be found (AMD has stated that the Zen architecture is complete, but no one is talking about K12), the SeaMicro blew $281 million in cash and did absolutely nothing for the company’s bottom line, and Project Skybridge was canceled — and with it, the 20nm version of Jaguar that might have helped breathe new life into AMD’s low-power product segments.
While Kabini and Jaguar were not huge earners for AMD, the company did a solid business in low-end processors. Unlike GPUs or big-core chips, 20nm might have been a decent fit for a low-power x86 part. Either due to limited funds or because the 20nm node couldn’t support the design, that never happened. The end result leaves AMD in a very difficult position. Zen isn’t expected to ship for revenue until Q1 2017, which means AMD has to survive the next 18 months until it begins recognizing revenue from sales in continuing results. Even if Sunnyvale delivers an excellent GPU refresh cycle in 2016, it faces an uphill fight.

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...e-equity-firm-silver-lake-fell-through-report

 

[NTMBK]

Shame, AMD could really use a cash infusion right now. Wonder what the sticking point was?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Shame, AMD could really use a cash infusion right now. Wonder what the sticking point was?

Assuming the rumours was true. Then most likely that AMD wants to be a CPU company first.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Assuming the rumours was true. Then most likely that AMD wants to be a CPU company first.

That's what I'm thinking. Silver Lake probably wanted AMD to become a lean-mean, highly-focused chip company (maybe graphics + semi-custom?) while AMD wanted to be "let's fight NVIDIA in GPUs and Intel in PC CPUs and server CPUs, oh and we'll do semi-custom too -- we're gonna be RICH!"

 

[sm625]

They probably got out for the same reason I did, and at the same time: when they read the reviews of the Fury X. What a disaster. AMD played their left bower even though Nvidia already threw out the right bower a month earlier. And just like in Euchre, that means this was the only trump card they held.

 

[dark zero]

AMD is already dead, so that negotiations will end bad.
And hopefully in the next year, AMD declares bankrupt before Zen is released.

About GPU división... It has hope in the right hands. It means 2 companies: Samsung or Apple.

I could said MS, but Intel would easily nerf AMD performance now like they are doing to nVIDIA. And knowing how MS depends on Intel so much...

I am almost feel sorry for AMD, but seeing how mediocre they are, I forgot that feeling. Even VIA has better chances than AMD

 

[NTMBK]

AMD is already dead, so that negotiations will end bad.
And hopefully in the next year, AMD declares bankrupt before Zen is released.

About GPU división... It has hope in the right hands. It means 2 companies: Samsung or Apple.

I could said MS, but Intel would easily nerf AMD performance now like they are doing to nVIDIA. And knowing how MS depends on Intel so much...

I am almost feel sorry for AMD, but seeing how mediocre they are, I forgot that feeling. Even VIA has better chances than AMD

You want them to go bankrupt, instead of releasing a potentially interesting product? What is wrong with you?

 

[AtenRa]

You want them to go bankrupt, instead of releasing a potentially interesting product? What is wrong with you?

The ignore option is looking closer and closer every day.

 

[desprado]

You want them to go bankrupt, instead of releasing a potentially interesting product? What is wrong with you?

what interesting product are you talking about? Majority do not even care if AMD exist or not.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Zen, Zen APUs, and next gen dgpus with HBM2 are all interesting products. Whether they can actually produce a compelling product in a timely manner remains to be seen.

Intel's delays and mediocre performance improvements are giving them a chance at least.

 

[dark zero]

You want them to go bankrupt, instead of releasing a potentially interesting product? What is wrong with you?

Sorry, but no one cares of AMD to the point that the console makers are starting to doubt about What are doing in the next gen. AMD failed Hard and people are buying less and less consoles....

And Zen is,made by those clowns of GloFo... So don't expect.nothing from them.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Sorry, but no one cares of AMD to the point that the console makers are starting to doubt about What are doing in the next gen.

Do you have evidence of this?

 

[dark zero]

Do you have evidence of this?

Xbox changing divisions says something?

 

[Arachnotronic]

Xbox changing divisions says something?

Not really.

 

[Blitzvogel]

AMDs death spiral has been pretty painful to watch. The odds are stacked so hard against them, but AMD made the bad decisions that put them where they are today. It also pains me to see all these execs jump ship/get kicked out with golden parachutes when it was often under their leadership that problems and losses arised.

 

[NTMBK]

Sorry, but no one cares of AMD to the point that the console makers are starting to doubt about What are doing in the next gen. AMD failed Hard and people are buying less and less consoles....

And Zen is,made by those clowns of GloFo... So don't expect.nothing from them.

This is the fastest selling generation of consoles ever. You're talking nonsense, again.

 

[dark zero]

This is the fastest selling generation of consoles ever. You're talking nonsense, again.

Nintendo Wii and DS wants to talk a Word with you...

 

[Fjodor2001]

I'm beginning to think that dark zero is an AI prank by some C.S. students, automatically generating posts.

It's already possible to generate research papers that way. Just fill in some name and hit Generate:

CS papers:
https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/archive/scigen/

Math papers:
http://thatsmathematics.com/mathgen/

 

[dark zero]

Zen, Zen APUs, and next gen dgpus with HBM2 are all interesting products. Whether they can actually produce a compelling product in a timely manner remains to be seen.

Intel's delays and mediocre performance improvements are giving them a chance at least.

The reason is that Intel is chasing.nVIDIA now. Without AMD and nVIDIA, Intel will have the absolute monopoly.

You says, but that is illegal... Remember with Who are Intel now.

 

[dahorns]

I'm beginning to think that dark zero is an AI prank by some C.S. students, automatically generating posts.

Which would actually be pretty impressive. It would be just on the edge of almost passing the Turing test.

 

[dark zero]

Seems that fjodor is desperate about the dissaster AMD had became... Now there is.a shortage of.HBM2 (poor nVIDIA)

 

[Sonikku]

You want them to go bankrupt, instead of releasing a potentially interesting product? What is wrong with you?

He wants more expensive Intel cpu's/Nvidia gpu's.

 

[dark zero]

He wants more expensive Intel cpu's/Nvidia gpu's.

Intel CPU with iGPU only. No nVIDIA, no AMD.
A Celeron costing 150 dollars like old times.
The Core i7 still being Quad Core and costing 1299 dollars.

If they want something cheaper, Intel could simply release a Single Core and that's it. Or simply make the Atoms as the lowest tier.

 

[KingstonU]

I have been starting to get the impression that Intel could now claim that, even if AMD disappeared, ARM is making up so much ground and that market is shifting so that it would not in fact be a monopoly anymore as it would be Intel + ARM + NVidia.

Honestly I used to hate Intel for how they ran AMD into the ground with their anti-competitive practices. But today, years later, I actually kind of like the idea of Intel buying AMD to take the best of both to compete with Nvidia, ARM and whatever other players, like Samsung maybe.

Give me fully functioning x86-64 Windows 10 on a cellphone already!

 

[dark zero]

Intel will take nVIDIA down and expell them from x86 once AMD dies.
It's IBM all over again.