Oracle Hints they are interested in buying Chip Company - AMD, NVidia, IBM or Fujitsu

[Qianglong]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/...Acquire_Semiconductor_Software_Companies.html

I sure hope this does not come true because it will mean either the following:

- Disband the graphics division
- Disband the consumer CPU division and Intel can do whatever they want
- Fire everyone else but the server division

All these means big loss to us consumers I am not too familiar with the mechanics behind large scale M&A but doesn't AMD's IP assets worth quite a bit of money despite their weak balance sheet?

 

[bryanW1995]

The lion's share of AMD's and Nvidia's revenue come from consumer hardware and Oracle is a company that will hardly jump onto those markets. Obviously, paying billions for AMD or Nvidia and then dropping their primary businesses does not seem to be a good idea.



according to the article fujitsu would be a MUCH better fit than the others you listed in the OP.

 

[zsdersw]

They probably need to make their own CPU so that Java apps run as fast as everything else does on the PC.

 

[BD231]

If they acquire AMD I think a counter attack should be assembled. Preferably subs, nukes and some type of aerial assault.

 

[Edrick]

Didn't Oracle buy Sun Microsystems? And the SPARC family of CPUs?

 

[OBLAMA2009]

oracle is a very consumer unfriendly company, i hope they stay out of the pc market

 

[IntelUser2000]

There's quite a few companies that are in the buyout speculation.

-Advanced Micro Devices
-ARM Holdings
-Fujitsu's processor division
-IBM's processor division
-MIPS Technologies
-Nvidia

ARM and MIPS

I'd count out ARM and MIPS. Why? Because they don't really manufacture chips, they license their IP to others and get royalty payments. If they wanted ARM products, they can buy companies like Qualcomm, TI, or whoever licenses ARM. Of course that includes Nvidia now.

Oh, and the ARM CEO shot down takeover rumors quite a few times now.

AMD and Nvidia

Next on the scratch list is AMD and Nvidia. They have about the same chance I'd say. Buying Nvidia is probably bit better for us consumers. But the both companies address mostly the same market.

Before we go further, we gotta remember they have Sun. Recently, there were rumors that Sun was ditching AMD processors on their product lines for Intel chips. Sun has their Niagara lines, but not too successful nowadays, both technically and financially.

Although I can't convincingly say why AMD and Nvidia are unlikely, I just feel something doesn't match. Don't know why they'd need the consumer market either.

Fujitsu

What about Fujitsu? They have their own version of Ultrasparc, one that's little better off than Sun's. Can this work? Maybe. Sounds kinda redundant. It's like buying AMD when they already have Via. Hmm, maybe Sun is doing that bad.

IBM

There were earlier rumors they wanted to use Global Foundries fabs, or they wanted to transfer one of their fabs to GF. I heard IBM basically keeps the chip division to feed their software services. Maybe they really want to become a full software services provider.

 

[dangerman1337]

Im seriously dobut they are going to buy AMD, Nvidia or even ARM. Probably someone far less risky like for example Texas intrsuments or something like that.

 

[ydnas7]

i guess their shortlist is only 3 companies

Via,
AMD
or Fujitsu

wildd possibilities
possibly Arm or Mips, but Arm is overpriced (at 75x PE) and overhyped to be an oracle takeover, Mips at least is a tenuous association with Godson series of processors.
Arm has little pricing power as Quallcomm and Marvel and Freescale have architectural licensees (which presumable mean that they pay zero royalties but are in effect competitors against those who do pay royalties)

 

[ydnas7]

just think, a 16 core Via x86 chip would be pretty easy for Sun (Oracle) to make.
Throughput X86 for databases, databases and only databases.

 

[Cogman]

I wouldn't be sad if they bought out via. That actually might be a good thing for the CPU industry.

As for buying IBM... LOL, IBM has more money than Intel... It is laughable to think they would consider such an expensive company like IBM and not Intel. Hell, IBM make MORE than oracle. It is more likely that IBM would buy oracle then the other way around.

Now, if they did buy AMD or Nvidia, that would not be such a good thing.

 

[busydude]

As for buying IBM... LOL, IBM has more money than Intel... It is laughable to think they would consider such an expensive company like IBM and not Intel. Hell, IBM make MORE than oracle. It is more likely that IBM would buy oracle then the other way around.

I think Oracle is interested in the chip design/manufacturing division of IBM not the whole company. Just like Lenovo bought IBM's Laptop division and Hitachi its storage division.

 

[Qianglong]

I just realized that Abu Dhabi owned 18% of AMD in shares and that country is getting dead serious in technology investment. They care about long term investment knowing that one day oil will run out. If Oracle decide to buy AMD, can the oubid the Abu Dhabi government?

 

[extra]

I don't think they would be allowed to buy AMD, so don't panic. Think about it. You know who else would be opposed to them buying AMD? Intel (despite the fact that they are competitors, they like and need having AMD around in the position they are in now--"coopetition"...and potentially giving Intel a complete monopoly in consumer CPUs would not be a good thing for Intel--Intel is ran by some incredibly brilliant people). Oh, and the US Government. And the EU. A small but incredibly rich country in the middle east. And dozens of PC OEMs. Not happening. Period.

 

[gevorg]

<flashback memories of Netburst>

 

[nenforcer]

Well they just payed something like 9 Billion for Sun Microsystems last year and they just announced a new 16 Core Sparc T3.

Unlikely they are interested in another hardware company.

 

[A_Dying_Wren]

Ars was speculating that they really only put out the new Sparc CPUs because it was quite far in development already (had to be) and would've been a waste not to have finished it.

It could be that they need a serious chip company in which case idk if via would cut it.