MS to purchase AMD?

TeKPhaN

TeKPhaN

I deal in absolutes
Sep 11, 2013
38,129
9,409
4,031
The Delaware Valley
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/46232/microsoft-reportedly-interested-acquiring-amd/index.html

Microsoft reportedly interested in acquiring AMD
The AMD acquisition talks continue, with Microsoft now reportedly throwing their hat into the ring


We're only a couple of weeks into the Radeon R9 Fury X being on the market, but buyout rumors continue to flow onto the Internet, with Microsoft now reportedly interested in acquiring AMD.
TRENDING NOW: Microsoft reportedly interested in acquiring AMD
Home
News
Business, Financial & Legal
Microsoft reportedly interested in acquiring AMD
The AMD acquisition talks continue, with Microsoft now reportedly throwing their hat into the ring (NYSE:AMD, NASDAQ:MSFT, NASDAQ:INTC, NASDAQ:ARMH, NASDAQ:NVDA, NYSE:SNE)

By: Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal News | Posted: 1 hour, 17 mins ago
Comment |
Tweet10
We're only a couple of weeks into the Radeon R9 Fury X being on the market, but buyout rumors continue to flow onto the Internet, with Microsoft now reportedly interested in acquiring AMD.



image: http://imagescdn.tweaktown.com/news/4/6/46232_01_microsoft-reportedly-interested-acquiring-amd.jpg




KitGuru is reporting from their sources that Microsoft is interested in acquiring AMD, which would make sense. But, remember that Microsoft has a very tight relationship with Intel when it comes to their products and Windows. Microsoft also maintains a very close relationship with AMD, as their Xbox One is powered by an APU made by AMD.



Microsoft has a huge $95.3 billion in cash, so it wouldn't take much to buy AMD at their market cap of $1.81 billion right now. If you consider the current value of AMD right now, it is three times less than what AMD paid for ATI Technologies back in 2008. With analysts estimating that Microsoft pays around $100 per APU to AMD for its Xbox One, Microsoft has already shelled out $1.26 billion or so to AMD with its 12.6 million Xbox One units sold.



Where it gets even more interesting, is thinking about the after effects of AMD being acquired by Microsoft. Sony would be paying Microsoft for every processor it buys from AMD for its PlayStation 4, so what would Sony do for the PS5? It would have to move over to NVIDIA, Intel, ARM or another company for its PlayStation 5 console.



The buyout talks are interesting, and with the current yield issues that AMD is experiencing with HBM on its new Fury range of cards, this could really help the company better compete against the unstoppable NVIDIA.
 
http://www.kitguru.net/components/a...erested-to-buy-advanced-micro-devices-source/

A rumour has surfaced that Microsoft may be interested in buying AMD and has approached AMD server months ago.


In a bid to revive its chip design operations, Microsoft Corp. may acquire Advanced Micro Devices, according to a source familiar with the matter. The software giant approached AMD several months ago, the source indicated. The result of the talks is unclear.

Microsoft Corp. has been selling game consoles for over ten years now and back in 2006 the firm even formed a division to design chips for its products, primarily game consoles. While this internal group has clearly developed some chips for Microsoft’s hardware, the company used chips designed by Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia Corp. for its Xbox One consoles and Zune players, respectively. As it appears, Microsoft’s own chip design team cannot really develop competitive solutions for the company’s devices and in order to make its chip operations viable.

The details about negotiations are unclear, just like Microsoft’s exact proposal to AMD. However, since Microsoft has $95.3 billion in cash, whereas AMD’s market capitalization right now is $1.81 billion, the software giant may buy AMD relatively easily. In fact, current value of AMD is three times lower than the company paid for ATI Technologies in 2006.

Analysts estimate that Microsoft pays around $100 for every Xbox One system-on-chip to AMD. Life-to-date sales of Xbox One are around are around 12.6 million units, which means that Microsoft has already paid AMD around $1.26 billion for Xbox One chips. The acquisition of AMD could save it around a billion per year on Xbox One chips alone. It the company develops appropriate chips for smartphones and tablets, Microsoft’s savings could be even higher.

It is necessary to note that Microsoft does not really need AMD. The software giant needs system-on-chips to power its Xbox game consoles, Lumia smartphones, Surface tablets and possibly other hardware devices. It does not really need server processors or high-end graphics cards. However, AMD’s management will unlikely sell a part of AMD to Microsoft since its accelerated processing units (what Microsoft needs) are based on technologies developed for server microprocessors and high-end graphics cards.

The battle for video game console space is very strong. If Microsoft bought AMD, then Sony would be faced with a bad set of choices: put money in Microsoft’s pocket every time it sells a PlayStation, or try to create an entirely new platform by using technologies from Intel, Nvidia, ARM or Imagination Technologies.

Since game consoles is an important business for Microsoft, the company naturally wants to make sure that its technology provider does not go bankrupt or is acquired by a competitor. For example, if Samsung takes over AMD and builds-in its APUs into its TVs, it will automatically become a major player in the market of video games.
Click to expand...
 
I cant beleive how cheap AMD is... Surely you couldn't buy the company for 1.81 billion? Or is that a different amount? I don't really know much about take overs...

How much did they buy Minecraft for?
 
If it makes business sense for MS then they should go ahead. They could probably reduce the cost of X1 which would be a good thing.
I don't think it would be in MS' s interest to sideline Intel and Nvidia, I really don't think that would be the case anyway, they want as many people on their operating system as possible, giving Windows 10 as a free upgrade underpins my point. Sidelining Intel/Nvidia would drive many PC users away from Windows so I don't think there's anything to worry about there.
 
I haven't been following the CPU stuff much recently, but if MS purchasing AMD could actually let them be a viable competitor to Intel, who last I recall pretty much dominates the x86 processor market for anything other than the absolute low end, it would be a good thing.
 
This would be very confusing for me. MS has vested interest in Nvidia/Intel, but also AMD? Hmm.. I understand the cheap price 1.6B..AMD shares are basically almost $1/share.
 
What I am wondering is if this will have a effect on AMD's future dealings with Sony and Nintendo? I would luv to see the NX house nVidia parts or even the ps5 :)
 
It is rumoured that AMD might be spinning off their businesses. Of that's the case MS may be interested in the Soc tech for Xbox, Surface, HoloLens etc.
 
VaLLiancE said:
What I am wondering is if this will have a effect on AMD's future dealings with Sony and Nintendo? I would luv to see the NX house nVidia parts or even the ps5 :)
Click to expand...

Problem there is it lets Nvidia practically name their price. If Sony are paying $30-50 more for a similar Apu then that gives MS a cost advantage next gen.
 
Yeah for all I know Nvidia has been a dick to lots of collaborators as well as competitors.

Gamers usually do not realize Microsoft also makes devices other than Xbox. This could prove necessary for Surface and Lumia as well. As much as I just love my Surface 3, Intel's driver support has been one sore spot for the device. If Microsoft purchases AMD, give it a good investment and hurry up with the development of Zen core, it could be a good thing for devices group.
 
However, if this does happen, expect AMD to withdraw from retail chip business. That's the only way Microsoft could get away with this purchase from Intel and Nvidia.
 
Microsoft has been in the hardware business at least since Original Xbox, and continuing with Surface/Xbox One. Seems like it would make good business sense to me, by increasing the margins and gaining patents.

I think it's a little silly to say that Sony wouldn't be able to use AMD for a PS5. Many companies pay royalty to MS for patents and the like. Microsoft getting money for every Android phone sold is a perfect example. That is if Microsoft wanted to sell them the GPU chip. The only problem that arises is that this would put a kink in any thought of Sony keeping their next GPU secret before the reveal of PS5.
 
GordoSan said:
Microsoft has been in the hardware business at least since Original Xbox, and continuing with Surface/Xbox One. Seems like it would make good business sense to me, by increasing the margins and gaining patents.

I think it's a little silly to say that Sony wouldn't be able to use AMD for a PS5. Many companies pay royalty to MS for patents and the like. Microsoft getting money for every Android phone sold is a perfect example. That is if Microsoft wanted to sell them the GPU chip. The only problem that arises is that this would put a kink in any thought of Sony keeping their next GPU secret before the reveal of PS5.
Click to expand...
I think from a business standpoint it would make pretty good sense for Microsoft to pursue the deal considering they've expanded hardware wise with other devices, kind of similar to what Apple does. Also with 98 billion dollars in the bank the interest alone from that money would pay that deal off within a year and a half. Microsoft certainly would not even miss it.
 
The Living Tribunal said:
Well this could open the door to all sorts of abuses....that and we don't need Windows favoring one set of drivers over another.
Click to expand...
Maybe.. but as long as they are letting other companies make Windows devices and don't go completely Apple, they have to support other hardware to stay competitive. This would really mostly effect the hardware that they, themselves build... I think... plus added profits from selling the chips to others.
 
Doubtful.

AMD is a cash losing company almost trading as a penny stock. MS focuses on software and service which are the money makers. They have Xbox already which is the main thing in their portfolio of products that goes against profit margins the most. Although they make back sales/profits on software, the Xbox brand as a whole (combo of hardware and software) lags the rest of the product lines.

AMD (with ATI) are hardware focused companies which seem to be losing money like no tomorrow. Amazingly, AMD PC cores and ATI v-cards are probably #2 vs. Intel and Nvidia. Yet, even with #2 rankings they still lose money somehow. Just about every industry in the world, the #2 players will still be raking in sales and profits, but AMD still loses somehow.

I don't see AMD being very profitable for MS, but the only way I can see it being worth doing is if they just want to ensure they are part of the pie when it comes to all these gadgets in the world, so they can ensure they are always at the bargaining table, and somehow they can turn that into helping W10 all over the place.

In terms of gaming, I doubt MS would go after AMD focusing on the PS battle as the main issue. Though it would help their cause as every sale for PS4 is a sale for MS, and they can reduce costs by absorbing whatever margin AMD charged MS for X1 chips.

But who knows. Nokia was a big loser the last 10 years and MS bought a part of them.
 
Maybe I'm possessed by Val, but maybe MSucks deliberately used AMD and ATi and made a s*** console with s*** games and policies, and then forced Sony to release just the one greatest game ever, this year, so as they can purchase AMD and force them to make 486 sequels?! (This is just a joke! No hate, lovers!)

I find it so weird that ATi, of all brands is in this place! I saved up as a teen to get a RAGE Pro! My mates were so jealous! Athlons were awesome gaming pedigree!

I wonder where it all went wrong.

All of the Surface's are Intel aren't they?

I could totally see MS doing this... But at the same time I hope they don't? I don't want AMD to go under either.
 
Sony shouldn't worry they're #1 and a hardware company. I'm sure they can make their own GPUs and CPUs that put AMD, Intel and Nvidia to shame.
 
jimmyD said:
Sony shouldn't worry they're #1 and a hardware company. I'm sure they can make their own GPUs and CPUs that put AMD, Intel and Nvidia to shame.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a total fabrication. :tounge:
 
jimmyD said:
Sony shouldn't worry they're #1 and a hardware company. I'm sure they can make their own GPUs and CPUs that put AMD, Intel and Nvidia to shame.
Click to expand...

It's Sony's world, we just live in it. Nothing sweats the King.
 
Actually makes sense if MS plans to stay in the hardware business. Helps not only with the next Xbox, it opens up tons of possibilities in the PC gaming market. GPUs could be part of Azure servers in the future as well.
 
I wonder if it goes through, MS might opted for a really beefy gpu considering they could potentially get the costs down really low.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back