Analyst sees NVIDIA as potential buyer for AMD, facts may get in the way

You can file this one squarely in wild rumors and speculation department, but at least one analyst is now saying that NVIDIA could maybe, possibly be interested in acquiring arch rival AMD. That surprising and slightly hard to believe word comes from Doug Friedman of American Technology Research, who says that the "Intel/AMD roadmap of integration of the CPU/GPU could pose a risk to NVIDIA," and that buying AMD would propel NVIDIA into a "formidable competitor for Intel." As X-bit Labs points out, however, there is the little matter of a cross-licensing agreement between Intel and AMD, which would prevent AMD from transferring any of Intel's technologies to a third party, effectively making it impossible for the new company to produce its own x86 CPUs, to say nothing of the potential antitrust issues involved.

[Thanks, Mack S]

[Bullitt @ Feb 15th 2008 12:18PM]

Another problem is that then nvidia would own a graphics card company (ATI).

[glennd4028 @ Feb 15th 2008 12:33PM]

Approval would probably require them to spin off ATI.

[brian_rock @ Feb 15th 2008 12:27PM]

i was gonna say, not that i dont like nvidia cards more than the ati... but that would be an entire monopoly of the video card market. I mean, after nvidia, then ati, what else is there on that scale?

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 15th 2008 12:45PM]

ooh, ati still make graphics cards? lol

yeah.. spin off ati.. not like they have super-advanced tech/exp
no loss.

[Miles @ Feb 15th 2008 12:45PM]

Matrox and a few other underdogs.

[E71 @ Feb 15th 2008 12:59PM]

I'd love to see Intel eat NVidia eat AMD. That would be sweet.

[Dorz @ Feb 15th 2008 1:52PM]

Yeah, and catastrophic for the consumer.

[tom @ Feb 15th 2008 12:21PM]

tomshardware published an article seeing IBM is a better acquirer than nVidia. I was pursuaded by it.

check it out
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/14/amd_merge_or_not/

[Frankenstein Black @ Feb 15th 2008 1:21PM]

Imagine a CELL inspired x86 octocore barn burner of a chip? Guess I do care. Ok the "IBM imortal vampire" FTW... Oh yea, ignore that MEH comment below ;^)...

[JAmerican @ Feb 15th 2008 5:36PM]

Then it would be Apple/Intel vs IBM again. LMAO!

[Carl Vitullo @ Feb 15th 2008 9:26PM]

i could see IBM acquiring AMD. IBM should get back in the mainstream, i miss them.

[Araxen @ Feb 15th 2008 12:22PM]

I wish Nvidia would buy AMD other I think AMD is eventually going to go bankrupt. They aren't putting out decent processors anymore.

[yoz @ Feb 15th 2008 12:27PM]

Imagine the price of one GPU after this merge?!

[Ellianth @ Feb 15th 2008 12:41PM]

What's wrong with using body parts as currency? I mean, do we really need two arms and 2 legs?

[Frankenstein Black @ Feb 15th 2008 12:26PM]

I file this one squarely in the "MEH" department's circular file!

[Gremlin @ Feb 15th 2008 12:26PM]

Seems like this would never be approved by the FTC even if it were to happen. Nvidia would have a monopoly on the dedicated graphics market.

I like the idea though - as it looks now, Intel will go unchecked in CPU superiority for the next several years. This fact will ultimately prove to have a negative effect on consumers as there will be no competing company driving Intel to shave prices, increase computing power, or decrease power draw significantly.

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 15th 2008 12:40PM]

"facts may get in the way" hahah! that's gold.

i must say, engadget is one of the funniest news blogs out there.
*cough* shun gizmodo

isnt this an exciting prospect?
intergrated CPU, GPU and PPU all in one chip?
mad..

anyway, i really dont want to see AMD shut it's doors, they are like apple back in 1984 ( albeit smaller ) verses Intel being IBM in 1984 except less scary.. but nonetheless general bastards.

[Karl Viklund @ Feb 15th 2008 12:42PM]

Hah, are you serious? I can tell you right away that they would not be able to afford such a monstrous buy out like that. Far too expansive.

[Abuzar @ Feb 15th 2008 7:17PM]

Expansive?

Even if they could afford it, they wouldn't be allowed to because that would give Nvidia a virtual monopoly on Dedicated Graphics.

[Miles @ Feb 15th 2008 12:47PM]

First off, if they bought it they'd own ATI too.
Second, AMD is making some bad processors right now.
Third, what's the point?

[alienbones @ Feb 15th 2008 12:48PM]

Antitrust is so last century.

[yoz @ Feb 15th 2008 1:01PM]

you're so last century,lol

[captain underpants and the bringdown gang @ Feb 15th 2008 3:40PM]

he may be last century but so is your mom.

[Rainier @ Feb 15th 2008 12:58PM]

Such a dog eat dog world....

[Peter @ Feb 15th 2008 1:16PM]

Xbit Labs doesn't know what it's talking about. Assuming that the transfer covenant doesn't contain other restrictions, an interested buyer of AMD can easily get around it by structuring the deal so that legally, AMD is the acquirer or it's a merger of equals (assuming that the covenants don't contain other restrictions). This is a trivial "problem" and Engadget is foolish for blindly endorsing it.

[Simon Waddington @ Feb 15th 2008 1:27PM]

This is a HORRIBLE idea that puts nVidia into direct competition with Intel instead of being a well respected value-add. It will force Intel to work even harder to create their own graphics above and beyond integrated solutions. Of course there is the point that for everyone but gamers integrated graphics are just fine for everything from surfing, office use, to home theater - you simply don't need external graphics, even for HD video. Which indicates nVidia should focus on gamers, superior integrated graphics (if they have a market there) and as yet unexploited spaces like mobile graphics.

However, there is one scenario I would agree that the nVidia take over is justified - and that is if it is a conspiracy (oooooh, conspiracy!) with Intel to put AMD out of business. nVidia buys AMD, lets their CPU biz wither and die (more than it is now) and then rolls over for an Intel aquisition. A huge was of money for nVidia but ultimately great for Intel.

[Jim @ Feb 15th 2008 1:30PM]

Freedman is absolutely the WORST chip analyst out there. Stupid questions in CC's, bad estimates, bad reason for upgrades/downgrades. Someone owns him or he is just stupid.

[Don @ Feb 15th 2008 1:58PM]

Not new information at all!! Tom's hardware on APRIL 1st 2002 was already reporting that AMD and nVidia were to be merged... HAUEhUHeEUAH

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1,_2002
Unfortunately Tom's took the link down and the april fool joke don't even list in their archives...

[Craig @ Feb 15th 2008 2:34PM]

Noooooooooo!!! Their competition would be what? Intel Graphic Accelerators and Matrox Video Cards. Ugh.

[Adam Zey @ Mar 18th 2008 4:11PM]

When I worked at Matrox... I was given an nVidia Quatro videocard for my workstation. Of course, I worked for Matrox Imaging, which was more concerned with frame grabbers than video cards.

[Bobby @ Feb 15th 2008 3:10PM]

IBM should buy AMD for all the reasons mentioned in the Tom's Hardware article.
I would love to see the look on Intel's collective face if that happens!

[Shannin @ Feb 15th 2008 3:11PM]

if they bought it wouldnt it create a monopoly? because didnt AMD just buy ATI?

[terahz @ Feb 15th 2008 3:37PM]

i found the full report here. apparently AMD is fouling up their products so much they are losing trust of their vendors, and people are losing trust in the management. who woulda thunk nvidia to be a contender to intel

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20080213/amd-nvia-puma-intel-santa-rosa-cpu-gpu.htm

[Poom @ Feb 16th 2008 1:45AM]

Nobody wants nVidia to cooperate with Intel? I do... I just think that there will be so much innovation if these giants work together... BUT I don't want AMD and ATI to dissappear though; competition is always good.

Actually, it should have been:

Intel acquires ATI
nVidia acquires AMD

That'd be great... damnit.

[b33eazy @ Feb 16th 2008 3:11AM]

Didn't Microsoft go with AMD becuase Nvidia was the whole cause of why the XBOX 1 getting canned after 4 years cuz it didn't make profit? I guess if this comes 2 pass ms will be forced 2 use them,for the Xbox 720.

[tobin92 @ Feb 16th 2008 12:20PM]

Anti-Trust would stop this... Nvidia and AMD owned ATI are the only major GPU developers . Nvidia would have a monopoly.