Imagination Technologies will continue to make GPUs after their biggest customer, Apple, said it would phase out their use of the products. In fact, Imagination will sell its MIPS CPU business and Ensigma communications business and focus solely on GPUs. Meanwhile, Imagination is seeking an agreement with Apple to put the company on better footing:
Just over a month ago, Imagination Technologies dropped the bombshell announcement that their largest customer, Apple, would be phasing out their use of Imagination's GPU IP in their SoC GPU designs. Specifically, Apple expects that they will no longer be using Imagination's IP for new products in 15 to 24 months. This put Imagination in a significant pinch, as Apple is a full half of the company's overall revenue and 69% of their GPU revenue. As a result, Imagination stands to lose the bulk of their GPU revenue starting two years down the line.
[...] Meanwhile in Imagination's bombshell of the month, alongside today's Apple update, the company is also announcing that they are going to be refocusing the company to focus entirely on the GPU business. To that end, the company is putting their remaining non-GPU businesses – the MIPS CPU business and the Ensigma communications business – on the market. Imagination is not listing an expected price for either business at this time – or if they have already lined up any suitors – but the company believes that given the improved fiscal performance of these two divisions, that they are in a good position to sell the two divisions.
MIPS and Ensigma have been two of Imagination's major efforts to diversify the company away from their original core business of GPU IP. MIPS was acquired by Imagination for $100M in 2012 – about 4.5 years ago – while Ensigma has been part of the company since the turn of the millennium. MIPS in particular has been a long-running architecture in the embedded space, and along with x86, is the other alternative CPU architecture supported by Google's Android OS. So the news that the engineering team and product portfolio behind the #2 architecture in mobile and embedded are being sold is a major development. MIPS and Ensigma are now joining Imagination's Pure business, which is also in the process of being sold off.
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The company that failed to acquire Lattice Semiconductor will acquire Imagination Technologies instead:
Imagination Technologies Group Plc agreed to be acquired by China-backed private equity firm Canyon Bridge Capital Partners.
Canyon Bridge said it will pay 182 pence a share in cash, or more than 500 million pounds ($675 million), for the U.K. designer of graphics chips. That's 42 percent more than Imagination's closing share price on Friday.
As part of the deal, Imagination will sell its U.S.-based embedded processor unit MIPS to Tallwood MIPS, a company indirectly owned by California-based investment firm Tallwood Venture Capital, Canyon Bridge said.
Canyon Bridge was keen to structure a bid to avoid scrutiny from U.S. regulators, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.
Earlier in September President Donald Trump rejected a takeover by Canyon Bridge of U.S. chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor Corp., just the fourth time in a quarter century that a U.S. president has ordered a foreign sale of an American firm stopped for security reasons.
Also at The Verge, AnandTech, and Financial Times.
Previously:
Related:
- Imagination Technologies Group Up for Sale
- Imagination Technologies will Continue to Make GPUs after Losing its Biggest Customer
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @03:24AM
Let's see those "in-demand" techies feel the saturated labor market!
Remember, once unemployed, always unemployed! LOLOL you're gonna be Fucked Like Me!!
This is my spot under the bridge! I pissed on it! It's my spot!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @04:30AM (9 children)
How prevalent are MIPS chips, compared ARMS or other cheaper microcontrollers?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @04:44AM
Dick Bathroom Stall-Man used a MIPS based Longdong laptop until it was stolen from him by gay Latinos on a mission to free his free hardware from the oppression of ownership. In a shocking move, Stall-Man abandoned free hardware when he later settled for a Core Dildo based StinkPad instead. If the holy Saint Stall-Man doesn't give two shits about MIPS then neither should you.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tonyPick on Friday May 05 2017, @06:46AM (5 children)
In my experience - it used to be common, but it's seriously lost ground to ARM over the past decade, and many of the embedded MIPS platforms I dealt with seemed to be looking to migrate to ARM as well, even if it was only for the improved toolchain support.
However last time I checked it was still a supported Android platform (mostly SoC's in low end tablets?) and Microchip's PIC range are still mips32 so it's still more prevalent than the bespoke micro archs.
Right now it's a distant third, which is a shame since Imagination did seem to be making a renewed push for decent chips and tools support over the past few years...
(Score: 1) by petecox on Friday May 05 2017, @07:00AM (4 children)
Microsoft should buy them?
Having lost the battle on phones, they prepare to re-birth Windows RT as Windows10 S on ARM tablets. But they're still reliant on Qualcomm to support whichever SoCs they please, which in the latest Windows Phone announcement led to a reduction in the number of supported models.
Developing for their own architecture would lessen reliance on third parties.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @07:38AM (3 children)
Having your own architecture is an expensive mess. Especially if it is a niche one. Microsoft will outsource the work and Qualcomm is as good as any partner as it pumps out ARM SoCs like candy.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday May 05 2017, @12:13PM (2 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday May 06 2017, @09:00AM (1 child)
If you don't mind me asking - is your involvement from a research perspective?
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday May 08 2017, @09:42AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @08:23AM
(Score: 2) by Rich on Friday May 05 2017, @10:52AM
I have my eyes set on the Microchip PIC32MX170F256B (remember that....) which is a 40/50 MHz alternative to the ubiquitous ATMega 328 from the Arduino world. 3 times the (internal) clock, 4 times the register width, 8 times the Flash, 32 times the RAM; all in a very similar pinout. Available in PDIP for about 3-4 EUR for quick experimental setups, other and USB variants exist.
What's not to like? (Admittedly, the pinout documentation is shite, I had to spend half a day making a nice pinout diagram in this "coloured column for function area" breakout style and a quick overview of the alternative mappings. But I liked what I saw from that overview.)
I also saw that ST recently introduced an ARM in a similar format, but my overall impression was that the PIC packs a bit more bang for a bit less buck.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @12:46PM
A few years ago I was talking to a friend at Apple about them switching vendors in a similar situation. After the decision to switch was made, there was a delay before telling the vendor (Apple can afford this tactic and it provides a backup plan). Apparently, the vendor called out the Apple engineers after a few weeks because Apple stopped finding bugs and demanding accelerated timelines. I'm not sure how I would have reacted as a lowly engineer who should not be delivering that message... probably "No.... but I wouldn't worry about hitting your deadline".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @04:11PM
these were the geniuses who had the powervr graphics chip that was used on some dev boards or something. no open source linux driver. who do you morons think you are selling the fucking dev boards to? you slaveware peddling dumb asses this is not 1995.