Anyone knows what's NVIDIA acquiring?

[Arun]

This is something pretty big I think I didn't properly hear and thus didn't properly account for in the original notes.
In the conference call, NVIDIA said their headcount was up 241 quarter-over-quarter with approximatively 100 of those coming from an ongoing software company acquisition.
They also mentionned that the $14.2M settlement charges regarding litigation issues were related to, if I heard properly, 3DFX and AVG. I could not have heard that last thing properly (it's in the beggining of the conference call, 50:35 on my player), since it seems really weird, but I'm sure it begins with an A at least. They said more info would be available on form 10K on their website soon, but apparently that wasn't published yet.

First, I guess whoever said on these very forums that NVIDIA is hiring much more aggressively than ATI right now was totally right... This is along the lines of a 10% headcount increase in ONE quarter! But what I'm mostly curious about here is that company they are acquiring. Seems to me software also has higher gross margins than hardware if sold separately, so that big software wins might be what Jen Hsun's expecting to get in the Mid-40s.


Uttar

 

[Geo]

Well, I heard "AVG" as well. Something to do with nforce, mebbee?

 

[atlantis]

Didn't Intel invested heavily in AVG Antivirus (Grisoft) recently?

 

[Jawed]

Well, I heard "AVG" as well. Something to do with nforce, mebbee?

The firewall in NForce, perhaps?

Jawed

 

[Arun]

The firewall in NForce, perhaps?

That came to mind as well. Would be weird, but far from impossible.

Didn't Intel invested heavily in AVG Antivirus (Grisoft) recently?

Yeah, they got a majority stake in it recently AFAIK. Maybe they had some ongoing legal actions between themselves, and Intel pressed both parties to find a settlement instead.
Still, that doesn't tell me what's NVIDIA's acquiring. Makes me curious!

Uttar

 

[Geo]

Still, that doesn't tell me what's NVIDIA's acquiring. Makes me curious!

Uttar

Pulling something out of my rear, but I'd guess something to improve/extend CG now that it is a major part of the Sony deal going forward? All the devs that do both and are willing to make comparisons say nice things about MS dev tools and moan about PS3 ones in relation. I mean, what software business would they want to get into that makes sense for them?

 

[MulciberXP]

Aegia!

 

[Arun]

Aegia!

You know, that IS technically software, and BFG being interested in PhysX definitively intruiged me since they have very close relations with NV. Still, doubt it, but interesting theory nonetheless..

Uttar

 

[MulciberXP]

You know, that IS technically software, and BFG being interested in PhysX definitively intruiged me since they have very close relations with NV. Still, doubt it, but interesting theory nonetheless..

Uttar

more importantly, it starts with an A

 

[Arun]

Yeah but that's unrelated, the A is for the litigation charges, I'm trying to guess the acquisition here

Uttar

 

[MulciberXP]

oops

 

[Dave Baumann]

100 people is a fairly substancial development team. A fairly small team would write an application such as the firewall interface; 100 people are probably writing fairly major commercial software applications.

 

[gunblade]

Maybe it is in the Offline rendering business to solidify the Gelato product line.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Maybe a Photoshop-type suite heavily using PCIe bi-directional bandwidth and moving as much processing to the GPU as possible? Nvidia have already demoed such an app when they were showcasing PCIe with NV40, but nothing more seems to have come of that.

 

[Geo]

100 people is a fairly substancial development team. A fairly small team would write an application such as the firewall interface; 100 people are probably writing fairly major commercial software applications.

The Ageia idea upstream was interesting, but I'm guessing their headcount even with admin types isn't 100.

 

[Jawed]

The power of marketing

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=3882

Jawed

 

[Geo]

The power of marketing

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=3882

Jawed

Oh, I dunno. There is sooo much of that general kind of software out there that you could really burn some bridges you don't want to burn if you become a direct competitor.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Oh, I dunno. There is sooo much of that general kind of software out there that you could really burn some bridges you don't want to burn if you become a direct competitor.

It's a cut-down version of an editing suite that will ship as a value-add with Connect3D cards. This is no different from any other pack-in from a card maker. It's not going to be a problem for ATI if that is what you are implying.

 

[Rys]

The Tenomichi thing is slightly different, given that it's not run-of-the-mill software and not cloned or competed with elsewhere (for that money). It's something different, anyway

 

[Geo]

It's a cut-down version of an editing suite that will ship as a value-add with Connect3D cards. This is no different from any other pack-in from a card maker. It's not going to be a problem for ATI if that is what you are implying.

No, I was implying that other video edit software companies might start looking at NV in a not entirely friendly way (and potentially vice versa) if they were to acquire this company (thread topic, right?), and that could have unhappy consequences for getting those suites optimized to use NV parts in a timely and robust way.