Apple buys a little Imagination -- 3.6 percent to be exact
By Tim Stevens 
posted December 19th 2008 9:09AM
posted December 19th 2008 9:09AM
posted December 19th 2008 9:09AM
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didn't you know that putting anything apple related and "games" in the same sentence makes hell freeze over? Stop making Satan freeze his ass off. ;_;
actually, guy, the jesus phone is now the world's definitive mobile gaming device.
@scoob
iPhone most definitive mobile gaming device -Not even close! But a step in the right direction? Yes.
iPhone doesn't even have a gaming library as elaborate as the other three. Apple has a long way to go!
Tom, I think Scoob was playing..
Dont people get sarcasm anymore? or should everyone start putting /sarcasm at the end of their posts and treat us like idiots like when people point out puns.
How bout' 5mil for some Flash support or copy paste?...
sprinkle on some MMS too please
I don't think Apple will be letting flash on their phone anytime soon, I think they're scared that people will just use the flash applications available online instead of buying games from the app store.
You guys are priceless. I've read the usual list of missing features in the comment section for every iPhone story I've ever read and I've yet to meet one person irl who even mentions any of them and I've had senior level programmer friends switch from Blackberries to iPhone without complaint.
Not that I want to sell anyone an iPhone, but seriously, you feature obsessives are like Ron Paul followers - I'm starting to believe you only exist in the comment sections of websites.
Is that switched use, or switched development?
I've done development for both BBs and the iPhone and while it's nice to be able to do fancy interfaces and whatnot on the iPhone, some of the applications i've made for BBs simply wouldn't work on a normal iPhone due to the missing "feature" of background applications.
Eric, that is just pure bullshit. Yes, certain people will always find something to bitch about with the iPhone, but the current lack of *major* features like MMS, camera flash, and video recording is not some niche concern. Given the revenue the carriers make from MMS, I'm fairly confident a large portion of iPhone users would love to have it. Email attachments don't cut it when most people don't have mobile email access.
Looks like apple are going to push the touch and iphones gaming capabilities. Either that or imagination have got an all powerful all-in-one chip.
I'll place a bet...
do iPod shuffles count as currency now?
but all of them were decieved, for a new phone was made. Deep in the depths of Cupertino in the glow of a half eaten apple, Steve Jobs created in secret a master phone, to control all others. And into this phone he poured games and you tube and his will to dominate all forms of portable media. One by one the competition of the wireless world fell into bankrupcy. But a last resistance of pissed off cell phone users fought for flash and copy/paste, alas they failed and darkness crept over the land.
That was brilliant. +10 internetz for you
i like what u did.
Where do the midgets with hairy feet fit into all this?
@CJ
They're in the engineering department at Motorola. They've gone a little overboard on the ale, though.
...then the internal battery couldn't hold a charge, and couldn't be replaced cheaply nor easily by the user, so the unit was tossed in favour of the currently-selling model. And so the cycle goes.
THE END (and the beginning of more iWaste).
http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/service/battery/
I think after what people see the Pandora do, PowerVR will get a lot of attention
Or..... like any other smart investor in this current market state, they are rethinking they're portfolio. A 3.6% stake is measly at best. It's not enough for them to do anything in terms of clout within Imagination. For those that don't know PowerVR is already the defacto graphics processor for the mobile market. There really is no other competitor until nVidia comes out with Tegra, so it is in fact a sound financial decision to buy Imagination stock.
"Rethinking their portfolio."
That is precious.
I rethought my portfolio and decided it would be best to invest all of it in the space between my box spring and mattress.
Not likely. What we are seeing here could be similar to the Microsoft/Facebook deal.
Last year, Microsoft bought a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $246 million, resulting in a more than $15 billion valuation for the company as a whole. This is of course far more than it was worth, but it prevented others, Google specifically, from buying the company at a bargain.
This Apple deal puts PowerVR at about $138 million, making it less likely for competitors like Sony to buy it out, leaving Apple without a graphics chip for the next generation of iPhones and iPods.
cmonkey, Imagination is pretty much competitor-less in the mobile graphics market. There is really no other good Graphics Processor for the portable electronics market other then the PowerVR line. Imagination would easily sell for more then that, even without Apple's current buy of ~ $63 a share. Every major electronics manufacturer from TI to Samsung to Sony,Apple to Intel licenses out PowerVR cores. $138 million is a huge bargain for that kind of Market Leverage. The thing preventing Sony from doing so is the guaranteed litigation not the actual value of the company. That is also what is preventing Apple from doing so. Considering every major phone manufacturer uses PowerVR cores in when they need a GPU, buying out Imagination would be diving into serious anti-competitive territory.
EJ, thanks for being a grammar nazi. On blog comments, Its not too important. :P
@Boarderwoot
I don't think Hustler magazines count as an investment...
i'll wait for Kevin Rose to make a bet first before i jump out without my parachute
Why is this news ? It's very common practice for a company to buy a small share in a supplier to ensure a good commited business relationship. Apple have been using Imagine graphics in their handhelds for a while, this just means at some stage in the future they might come under Apple's wing when it becomes cost effective.
I'll tell you what it most likely is.
Apple is contracting out to Imagine to help develop an iPhone gaming platform.
As part of the contract, Imagine is requiring Apple to invest $5 million in stocks for the company.
Then with Imagine's help, the iPhone gaming market takes off - easily doubling or tripling the worth of the company from a highly rising stock value. So basically, that $5 million could easily become $15 - $20 million later for them.
It's a Win / Win for Apple & Imagine.
IRL? What is this a video game? What are we in a clan war or something?
Are we in an alternate universe that doesn't discuss the world in anything but theory?
apple will release a "TRUE" mobile game console, R.I.P. PSP
you mean with tactile controls, shoulder buttons, decent publisher support, gameplay longevity, etc?
"a next-gen iPhone with even more emphasis on games."
Why just games. I can think of a handful of applications for a better video chipset from smoother video playback, to the ability to output to an external monitor at higher frame rates.
With all the money Apple has been sleeping on, you would think Apple would just outright buy the company and gain an advantage over the rest of the field.
Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Like others have said here Apple doesn't have to buy it completely, just keep the competitors from doing it.
And if they don't own it they can put pressure on them to sell the products at a lower price. Not to mention the fact that if other companies can purchase it as well it will increase the volume manufactured thereby reducing the cost (of R&D).
I don't know Engadget. I looked at the photo and I saw a Kryptonian symbol. Are you sure we're not being invaded? My god, that's it! Steve Jobs is Brainiac!
How about a 9-10 inch "iPhone" UMPC tablet?
iPhone platform with big games support and tablet PC functionality with all the multitouch & accelerometer awesomeness that made the iPhone what it is today.
Seems to me like this is a cash injection... Looking at Imaginations last set of interim results which states a pre-tax profit of a measly £0.1m, could this simply be Apple ensuring that Imagination are still around for the duration that they have committed to Imagination's technology ?
There are other companies providing mobile graphics, Nvidia's Tegra platform, ARM has their own graphics solution called Mali (which is very comparable to Imaginations product offering, and in some cases better).
Andrew
this sounds promising
Good thing I didn't accept that imagination tech job offer.