MS/Nvidia come to an agreement....

[sandorski]

...MS gets first dibs on NVidia if someone attempts to take control of NVidia.

Link

Wasn't sure which Forum to put this bit of interesting News.

Although I think this is likely a Poison Pill, I think NVidia is seeing the writing on the wall. Not necessarily that they're doomed to fade away as much that certain players(Intel being the chief amongst them) will become more eager to snap them up as time progresses.

 

[notty22]

Consumers buying multiple new phones/ tablets for themselves and their families sometimes more than once a year is competing against the old PC business model and can't be ignored and left to Apple only domination. I'd like to hear Bill Gates was coming out of retirement. That alone would probably will Steve Jobs health problems away !

 

[Schadenfroh]

I do not think that would be a good match. I would not go for it if I was a Microsoft shareholder.

I suppose they could buy nVidia and Nokia to create their own mobile platforms from the ground up. Maybe merge DirectCompute with CUDA as well or get an in-house XBOX Chipset & GPU design (possibly CPU as well if they go the route of ARM).

 

[bryanW1995]

Interesting article, though I don't think that M$ would actually want to buy NV other than as a purely defensive play against, say, a google or apple takeover. And even then, it probably wouldn't be a good deal for NV as M$ would probably just keep the parts that they wanted and spin off the rest, anyway.

 

[Lonyo]

Shouldn't it be "came to an agreement" since it's a decade old, although still in force.

Microsoft and Nvidia negotiated their acquisition deal as part of a broader arrangement under which Microsoft licensed Nvidia graphics chips for use in the Xbox entertainment and gaming console. The obscure pact is more than a decade old, but is apparently still in effect

It's not like MS suddenly decided they wanted to have the chance to buy NV before anyone else... if it's a decade old then NV is hardly "seeing the writing on the wall", unless they had the same view 10 years ago when things were rather different.

 

[sandorski]

Shouldn't it be "came to an agreement" since it's a decade old, although still in force.



It's not like MS suddenly decided they wanted to have the chance to buy NV before anyone else... if it's a decade old then NV is hardly "seeing the writing on the wall", unless they had the same view 10 years ago when things were rather different.

Crap, missed that part.

 

[imaheadcase]

This is not exactly news, lots of companies do this in agreements. Because one can cancel out the others business model, they simply do this to coexist.

Wal-mart does this even, if a supplier can't offer the goods they want at such a level, they agree wal-mart can buy them out. You can see this walking the isles at wal-mart.

It happens more in the electronics field than retail though, just giving a example.

 

[tviceman]

It looks like to me Microsoft is betting Nvidia will pull ahead in performance and/or price/performance in the ARM race and is blocking a take over by Apple.

 

[Bearach]

It looks like to me Microsoft is betting Nvidia will pull ahead in performance and/or price/performance in the ARM race and is blocking a take over by Apple.

Why do you believe this? It looks like the agreement was made before nVIDIA even decided to make ARM based SoCs.

It looks more likely it was to protect their XBOX product at the time, than anything to do with Tegra.

 

[tviceman]

Why do you believe this? It looks like the agreement was made before nVIDIA even decided to make ARM based SoCs.

It looks more likely it was to protect their XBOX product at the time, than anything to do with Tegra.

The agreement was modified and renewed. Nvidia currently has nothing to do with MS's console business - in fact, they actually supply MS's main competitor (Sony) the GPU used in the PS3. So on the surface, the fact that is agreement was modified, updated, and renewed by MS shows MS has a very big interest in the one product MS is most interested in from nvidia - Tegra.

 

[Bearach]

The agreement was modified and renewed. Nvidia currently has nothing to do with MS's console business - in fact, they actually supply MS's main competitor (Sony) the GPU used in the PS3. So on the surface, the fact that is agreement was modified, updated, and renewed by MS shows MS has a very big interest in the one product MS is most interested in from nvidia - Tegra.

Sorry, I don't see where it says it was amended? Could you quote where you saw that? I must have missed it.

 

[tviceman]

Microsoft and Nvidia negotiated their acquisition deal as part of a broader arrangement under which Microsoft licensed Nvidia graphics chips for use in the Xbox entertainment and gaming console. The obscure pact is more than a decade old, but is apparently still in effect—even though Nvidia lost the contract to provide GPUs for the Xbox to ATI Technologies in 2003. ATI was later acquired by AMD.

The deal has existed since Xbox 1 came to fruition, but was obsoleted when MS discontinued the xbox and went with ATI/AMD for the xbox360. The only reason this is news today is because the deal was been renewed/renegotiated/amended despite the fact that Nvidia is currently not licensing or supplying Microsoft with any hardware that is vital to a shipping MS product.

 

[notty22]

Sorry, I don't see where it says it was amended? Could you quote where you saw that? I must have missed it.

This all just came to the business news because of the new filing on May 27
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-pact-with-nvidia-could-result-in-future-takeover/

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated May 27 and reviewed by Information Week, Nvidia says, “Under the agreement, if an individual or corporation makes an offer to purchase shares equal to or greater than 30% of the outstanding shares of our common stock, Microsoft may have first and last rights of refusal to purchase the stock.”

which can't be ignored with news like this.
Microsoft reveals ARM-powered Windows 8 prototypes (eyes-on)

Personally I don't think Nvidia will be bought by Microsoft, but this will once again do crazy things to Nvidia's stock price.

 

[SHAQ]

Will there still be Nvidia cards if they get purchased? Microsoft isn't exactly a friend to PC gaming.

 

[tviceman]

Will there still be Nvidia cards if they get purchased? Microsoft isn't exactly a friend to PC gaming.

I think the underlying point of this is that Microsoft doesn't necessarily have a strong interest in purchasing Nvidia, they just don't want any of their competitors purchasing Nvidia.

 

[Bearach]

The deal has existed since Xbox 1 came to fruition, but was obsoleted when MS discontinued the xbox and went with ATI/AMD for the xbox360. The only reason this is news today is because the deal was been renewed/renegotiated/amended despite the fact that Nvidia is currently not licensing or supplying Microsoft with any hardware that is vital to a shipping MS product.

Sorry I don't see where it states it was renewed/renegotiated/amended. In fact I have a source that has a statement from nVIDIA:

An Nvidia spokesman tells me the arrangement between Nvidia and Microsoft has been disclosed every quarterly filing for more than a decade

Here is link.

 

[Lonyo]

This all just came to the business news because of the new filing on May 27
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-pact-with-nvidia-could-result-in-future-takeover/

which can't be ignored with news like this.
Microsoft reveals ARM-powered Windows 8 prototypes (eyes-on)

Personally I don't think Nvidia will be bought by Microsoft, but this will once again do crazy things to Nvidia's stock price.

But it can be ignored because it's been there every year for the last 11.

 

[notty22]

But it can be ignored because it's been there every year for the last 11.

LOL, tell it to the reporter who wrote the article the OP is based on.

 

[nenforcer]

Apple is keen on owning all of the IP in its products, including all of its ARM semiconductor designs.

This just could be a preventative measure in case Apple wanted to own both the GPU and mobile ARM Tegra which it could use in all of its future Ipad's and Ipods.

That would leave Intel as the only semiconductor supplier for Apple desktops (MacBook Mac Pro) but there is zero chance Apple would have purchasing Intel.

 

[tviceman]

Sorry I don't see where it states it was renewed/renegotiated/amended. In fact I have a source that has a statement from nVIDIA:



Here is link.

You are right, it doesn't. The very fact that this article came up today though implies that there has been some sort of addon/amendment to the agreement. If there hasn't been, then the original posting of this article as if it were news worthy at this very moment is misleading.

 

[notty22]

There is often unknown motivations why news/opinion pieces are written about other news/opinion pieces.
One comes to mind is Charile's, comment about BD actually not being delayed.
Bulldozer delayed and not delayed


Nvidia's stock price has surged recently with other press releases concerning , Windows ARM versions, Kal-Lel, tablets etc.
Maybe that was some motivation behind bringing up this legal -fine print.

 

[Bearach]

You are right, it doesn't. The very fact that this article came up today though implies that there has been some sort of addon/amendment to the agreement. If there hasn't been, then the original posting of this article as if it were news worthy at this very moment is misleading.

Yeah, I think you're right. It is misleading. I would have thought the same as you, except some wording left me thinking it was a story out of nothing.