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Transmeta puts itself on the block
Transmeta's wild ride is apparently coming to a end -- having given up the chip game entirely in favor of lucrative patent licensing deals, it sounds like the company's board is tired of being called out by investors and looking to sell off what's left, saying it's a way to "enhance value for all its stockholders." Considering that AMD owns a $7.5M chunk of stock and most of Transmeta's tech is already licensed out to NVIDIA and Intel, those seem like they'd be likely suitors, but you never know with these guys -- we'll see how this all plays out in the end.
NVIDIA pays Transmeta $25 million for LongRun technology
A select bunch of Transmeta investors may not completely agree with how the outfit is being managed, but one thing's for sure: it's bringing in some serious coin on this deal. During a brief timeout from counting those stacks of Benjamins handed over by Intel, it decided to license its Long Run and LongRun 2 technologies (among "other intellectual property") to NVIDIA for a cool $25 million. Additionally, the agreement grants NVIDIA a "non-exclusive and fully paid-up license" to all of Transmeta's patents and patent applications. Unfortunately, it's still unclear how exactly this will end up affecting NVIDIA fanboys (and girls), but we'll go out on a limb and suggest that a mobile GTX 280 with a remarkably low power draw is just around the bend.[Via SlashGear]
Transmeta's investors claim the company is being mismanaged
We thought Transmeta was back on track after settling that patent lawsuit with Intel and scoring a $7.5M investment from AMD, but it looks like the company's investors aren't as convinced -- they've filed a lawsuit accusing Transmeta of mismanagement and have offered to buy the whole company outright. Led by investment firm Riley Investments, which owns nearly seven percent of Transmeta, the lawsuit claims that Transmeta executives have been giving themselves huge unwarranted bonuses while failing to manage the company effectively -- the latest example being the general counsel getting a $10M bonus while the company posted a profit of just $44,000. That's definitely pretty sketchy, but even worse is Riley's plan if it does manage to take over: killing off Transmeta's manufacturing operations and turning the company into a patent troll. Either way, we should find out which drain Transmeta's going down rather soon -- we'll keep you updated.
Intel and Transmeta settle patent dispute for $250M
Looks like it's all hugs and kisses and millions of dollars in licensing fees for Intel and Transmeta after all, as the two companies finalized a settlement agreement in their year-long patent dispute today. The agreement calls for Intel to license Transmeta's patents for $150M upfront and $20M a year for the next five years, and Intel can't do anything except pout if Transmeta decides to license its LongRun tech to any other company at the same time. That's a fun little chunk of change for Transmeta, which was about to get de-listed from the NASDAQ back in March before turning things around -- and getting a $7.5M vote of confidence from AMD. No word on how the company plans to serve its two competing masters, but it's got to feel nice to be wanted.[Thanks, Jon]
AMD sinks $7.5 million into Transmeta
Shortly after months of bickering with Intel, Transmeta finally took its ungraceful bow out of the CPU business, but apparently AMD sees something within the company worth investing in. Yesterday, AMD announced that it would be investing $7.5 million in Transmeta in exchange for Transmeta preferred stock, a move that was eloquently dubbed "a strategic investment in the future of Transmeta." Les Crudele, president and CEO of Transmeta, was quoted as saying that his firm looked forward to "continuing its collaboration with AMD on technology initiatives in the future," and AMD returned the lip service favor by boasting about how vital Transmeta was in bringing its AMD64 technology to market. Aw, how touching.[Via CNET]
Transmeta now officially out of the CPU business
The only thing surprising about Transmeta's quiet exit from the hardware component business was the good amount of time they took to make their not-so-grand exit since selling their CPU business nearly two years ago. The ailing company is shedding about 100 employees and closing its offices in Taiwan and Japan in an effort to save up to $23 million annually -- what they hope will be enough to keep them afloat while they transition to an IP portfolio-driven business. While we won't miss our old Transmeta gear all that much, but we can certainly appreciate what they were on to at the time -- cheap, efficient, low powered chips when everyone else was pumping out bucks and megahertz. Now we just have to hope Transmeta won't turn into an NTP or SCO-like industry nuisance whose business model is less about technological innovation, and more about taking advantage of the outmoded legal system in order to sap larger companies of their profits.[Via ChipChick]
Intel strikes back: hits Transmeta with its own lawsuit
Apparently Transmeta isn't the only one that feels like they just give and give in this relationship. Intel's decided that Transmeta has swiped a few too many of its technologies, and is suing the struggling microprocessor company for patent infringement. Transmeta's infringement suit against Intel is still ongoing, claiming eleven of its patents are being stepped on by big bad Intel's Core, Core 2 and Pentium chips. Intel claims the "doctrine of unclean hands," basically a "they did it first!" sort of defense, and its also ratting on Transmeta for "inequitable conduct" for purported withholding of information by inventors during the patent application process. With Transmeta on its last legs, and fully transformed into an intellectual property-only company, perhaps Intel is hoping the law fees can wipe up the rest of Transmeta's capital, but we'd rather believe it's just back to playground tactics.
Transmeta sues Intel for patent infringement
Oh Transmeta, we remember you when you were the darling of Silicon Valley -- yes, the same company that attracted Linus Torvalds and the attention of Microsoft. But apparently Transmeta's designs were so good that Intel copied them (specifically some relating to such nebulous IP holdings as "computer architecture" and "power efficiency") without asking first, resulting in Transmeta filing suit against Intel. According to an account in the EE Times: "The complaint charges that Intel has infringed and is infringing Transmeta's patents by making and selling a variety of microprocessor products, including at least Intel's Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M, Core and Core 2 product lines." Given Intel's recent success, it seems like a possible legal ploy to get at Intel's coffers -- especially considering the bouts with restructuring Transmeta's had in the past couple years.[Via Slashdot]
