Nvidia buying AMD - can it happen?

[thesmokingman]

There are threads on this in the past.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/c...nge-of-control-terminates-agreement-for-both/
Both would lose their license and will be force to renegotiate with the US government presiding over negotiation.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/g...intel-cannot-block-our-merger-or-acquisition/
Devinder Kumar, chief financial officer of Advanced Micro Devices, said in a statement last week that the company could enter into joint ventures, mergers or acquisitions (M&A) agreements without fearing of termination its cross-license pact with Intel Corp. Many industry observers believe that a bigger company cannot acquire AMD since this will terminate the deal with Intel and will leave AMD without an x86 license immediately.
The cross-license agreement is automatically terminated when one of the parties changes its ownership or control. Many analysts believe that this clause in the agreement has kept multiple companies and strategic investors away from AMD because without an cross-license deal with Intel the company loses legal rights to build x86-compatible processors. Products containing Intel’s x86 and other IP account for 70 per cent of AMD’s revenue. However, AMD’s CFO denies that AMD will face drastic problems in case there is a change of control.
“Is there anything, any impediment from an M&A or joint-venture standpoint? The answer is no, there is no impediment from an overall M&A standpoint regarding the cross-license,” said Mr. Kumar.
Since Intel does use intellectual property of AMD inside its chips, it needs an agreement with AMD. However, it should be noted that if the cross-license between AMD and Intel is terminated because a party gets acquired by a third company, licenses granted to another party will survive unless that other party gets acquired too (i.e., if AMD is taken over, Intel sustains rights to AMD’s IP), in accordance with the term 5.2d of the agreement. The same happens if one company gets bankrupt.



Mods, can we just have one sticky thread on this because AMD x86 license in case of change in ownership gets brought up over and over and over again.

Yea, AMD has an ace if the license for x86 is rendered moot, so is Intel's license to use AMD64. They both mutually need each other so they would have to come together for a new agreement.

 

[moonbogg]

Nobody wants Nvidia to become AMV. AMD wrecks everything they touch. They are the anti performance company IMO and if Nvidia bought them, Nvidia's name would be instantly tainted and associated with failure. My bias toward Nvidia/Intel is now absolute. There was a chance for me to convert, but that time is gone now. AMD is dead to me.

 

[thesmokingman]

Nobody wants Nvidia to become AMV. AMD wrecks everything they touch. They are the anti performance company IMO and if Nvidia bought them, Nvidia's name would be instantly tainted and associated with failure. My bias toward Nvidia/Intel is now absolute. There was a chance for me to convert, but that time is gone now. AMD is dead to me.

Nvidia would buy up AMD in a heartbeat if they could get away with it, lmao. AMD holds a ton of attractive IP. Though for AMD it might be that the parts are greater than the sum. That's great that AMD is dead for you, but you are taking a personal stance not a tech for tech view. There's something to be said for a shrimp of a company to be competing vs two giants and surviving.

 

[Leyawiin]

Nvidia is doing fine without that albatross around their neck. AMD has nothing they want or need foe their current business model. The whole point of a purchase is to enhance the purchaser, not saddle it with debt and tech/R&D that's not needed.

 

[Arachnotronic]

AMD holds a ton of attractive IP..

What? A bunch of crappy uncompetitive x86 cores and a GPU architecture too power hungry to be competitive in the high-growth markets today (i.e. mobile)?

There may be value in AMD's patents but I think AMD management is trying to over-hype their "IP portfolio" to investors to try to give stockholders some piece of hope to cling on to.

 

[thesmokingman]

What? A bunch of crappy uncompetitive x86 cores and a GPU architecture too power hungry to be competitive in the high-growth markets today (i.e. mobile)?

There may be value in AMD's patents but I think AMD management is trying to over-hype their "IP portfolio" to investors to try to give stockholders some piece of hope to cling on to.

lol

I don't think anyone is under any delusions of grandeur regarding their portfolio vs stock price.

 

[Arachnotronic]

lol

I don't think anyone is under any delusions of grandeur regarding their portfolio vs stock price.

There are some crazies out there.

 

[moonbogg]

There are some crazies out there.

Nothing crazier than buying AMD! Bahhh just kidding. They got some good GPUs if you like second best.

 

[thesmokingman]

There are some crazies out there.

You would have to be daft if you think Nv did not benefit from their IP though, like AMD64 aka x86-64 which is the base for MS OS'. Nvidia is still dealing with the reach around they got from the devil being barred from building an x86 cpu. With x86-64, Intel would need Nv just as much as Nv has wanted to get in on x86. I don't think it's saying much to say AMD is mismanaged and somewhat nebulous, however if they had cut throat management like the likes of Nv, it would be a site to behold. That said, I'm not a fan of them joining together, it frightens me to imagine only one player in the game.

 

[mysticjbyrd]

Nothing crazier than buying AMD! Bahhh just kidding. They got some good GPUs if you like second best.

Maybe 2nd best if you want to pay $1k....

$/performance they are just as good.

 

[NTMBK]

Given that a bunch of Nvidia patents were just found to be worthless in the Samsung/Qualcomm case, they might be shopping for some new IP

 

[krumme]

Given that a bunch of Nvidia patents were just found to be worthless in the Samsung/Qualcomm case, they might be shopping for some new IP

Lol.
Seriously i still dont know what case was about. Their claims looked crazy from day one - with no chance of succeding - so i have to wonder if there is some more hidden tactics in the move?

 

[Rakehellion]

Nvidia should buy ATI.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Nvidia should buy ATI.

If by ATI you mean the Radeon Technologies Group, then you may be on to something there. Though Nvidia would gain some from having their own host platform in which to integrate NVlink.

 

[Shmee]

I would much rather have Intel buy Radeon. If they could, it would give them the entry into high end graphics, and would give Radeon the R&D funds needed for more awesome products I currently dislike the way Nvidia has been going.

Also, fwiw, Nvidia doesn't do everything better than AMD. They have the single GPU Halo card winner, the Titan X, and the 980Ti as basically the same thing cut down a bit, but they need to work on their multi GPU implementations, something that AMD Radeon has been very good with GCN 1.1 and beyond. Also, AMD often gives better bang per buck on mid-high end cards, making them an attractive buy for gamers who want a powerful system, but also want good deals.

And Nvidia has yet to implement an HBM solution, but I am sure that is on the way (or hope)

 

[ShintaiDK]

Intel have already stated multiple times they will not go dGPU due to margins if we look beyond the shrinking market. This is also one of the reasons Larabee(consumer edition) and the 740 before that got axed.

Should Intel hypothetical buy the Radeon part, then its pretty much for IGP only.

 

[NTMBK]

Intel have already stated multiple times they will not go dGPU due to margins if we look beyond the shrinking market. This is also one of the reasons Larabee(consumer edition) and the 740 before that got axed.

Haha, no, Larrabee got axed because it wasn't going to be competitive.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Haha, no, Larrabee got axed because it wasn't going to be competitive.

It doesn't matter if it would or not, hence the multiple reasons. The margins would still prevent it.

There isn't any (good) money in gaming hardware. Remove Tesla/Quadro from NVidia and they margins would plummet.

Hence Larabee is now a successful HPC product where the money is.

 

[redzo]

Okay, so take on billions of dollars of debt, dump the CPU division (while keeping it's debt), just to gain 20% more share in the shrinking desktop GPU market.
The only way this happens is part of a pre-packaged bankruptcy that let's AMD shed it debt load.

You've nailed it

 

[ultimatebob]

Instead of NVidia buying AMD, how about Samsung? They would probably scrap a good portion of the company, though, since they would just want the patents and IP.

Besides, the idea of supercharged Smart TV using an AMD APU just sounds cool.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Instead of NVidia buying AMD, how about Samsung?
Besides, the idea of supercharged Smart TV using an AMD APU just sounds cool.

Samsung gaming consolesmart tv?

 

[AtenRa]

It doesn't matter if it would or not, hence the multiple reasons. The margins would still prevent it.

There isn't any (good) money in gaming hardware. Remove Tesla/Quadro from NVidia and they margins would plummet.

Hence Larabee is now a successful HPC product where the money is.

They axed Larabee for low margins but they went on with Contra-Revenue on mobile ???

Larabee was a failure, not because of low margins but because of sub par performance against AMDs and NVIDIAs dGPUs.

 

[ShintaiDK]

dGPUs dont have a growth potential.

 

[NTMBK]

dGPUs dont have a growth potential.

Tablets are tanking even harder than GPUs.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Tablets are tanking even harder than GPUs.

Oh I agree. But it wasn't so at the time. Tablets was a growth segment back then. But the dGPU fate was sealed ages ago and its just plain silly to try that route.