Ati wants to go shopping

[whql]

http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuo...tfh95818_2005-01-25_23-45-57_n25317672_newsml

TORONTO, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Graphics chip designer ATI Technologies Inc. (ATY.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) (ATYT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is interested making a large merger or acquisition after confining itself to a few small deals in recent years, chief executive David Orton said on Tuesday.

"We've been on a pace of about one (deal) a year and I think it's about time for us to now look at a bigger step, but nothing is in the funnel," he told reporters after the company's annual meeting.

"You don't want to go into it lightly. It can destroy companies. But the digital consumer is the area and there's a breadth of proximity markets ... that are interesting to us."

ATI's last major acquisition was its $400 million stock-based purchase of chip developer ArtX Inc. in 2000.

Since then it has focused on its fierce rivalry with graphics chip designer Nvidia Corp. (NVDA.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , and on expanding its market beyond computers to game consoles, televisions and other devices.

Orton said newly appointed chief financial officer Patrick Crowley, who joined the firm this month, would be expected to "sharpen" the company's process for evaluating potential deals.

But he declined to say how much Markham, Ontario-based ATI was prepared to spend on a deal.

"It's not so much a financial question as it is an alignment question from my standpoint. If you find the right alignment and you have a common view of where you can go with this, the market in a sense will define the value," he said.

Who will they go for?

 

[Geo]

Yowza. That did not at all read (other than the word "shopping" in the thread title, which presumes buying) like they were --necessarily-- expecting to be the senior partner in a deal.

 

[Inane_Dork]

Who out there is worth buying? 3DLabs? Matrox? S3? BitBoys? XGI? I don't see anyone worthy of being purchased (with respect to ATi, of course). Maybe SGI or parts of IBM or Intel?

Or maybe it's more of a mobile type acquisition.

 

[Geo]

Who out there is worth buying? 3DLabs? Matrox? S3? BitBoys? XGI? I don't see anyone worthy of being purchased (with respect to ATi, of course). Maybe SGI or parts of IBM or Intel?

Or maybe it's more of a mobile type acquisition.

I have a suspicion [tho based on nothing in particular] that you are being way too narrow in your thinking on this.

 

[Inane_Dork]

I have a suspicion [tho based on nothing in particular] that you are being way too narrow in your thinking on this.

They want to buy out Burger King?

 

[Dave Baumann]

This follows on from ATI's AGM last night. When you take this comment out of the report:

But the digital consumer is the area and there's a breadth of proximity markets ... that are interesting to us.

with this comment, apparently from the AGM:

How is ATi getting their name out - Orton answered by the company will be recgonized by being a leader in each of the above mentioned markets especially involving HDTV and Cell Phones.

Its more likely that it will not necessarily be limited to a traditional PC target IMO.

 

[_xxx_]

They will buy Intel, Microsoft, nVidia and the White House.

 

[Megadrive1988]

*ATI will merge with Microsoft, or M$ buys ATI. then ATI becomes the graphics division of Microsoft for future Xboxs and PCs?

*ATI buys PowerVR to give ATI an edge over Nvidia which already has GigaPixel with their buyout of 3Dfx.

*ATI buys XGI, S3 and 3DLabs so Nvidia can't.

*ATI piched a better graphics solution to Sony. ATI cuts out Nvidia from all nextgen consoles. Sony invests in ATI.

 

[Jawed]

Samsung and ATI.

Jawed

 

[_xxx_]

Maybe they'll buy an "N" and call the company ANTI...

 

[tEd]

something for mobile(phone,pda) market me thinks

 

[NocturnDragon]

Hasn't some analyst wrote that Ati should buy powerVR, some time back?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

digital consumer is the area and there's a breadth of proximity markets

I can't see them buying something related to the PC space - it will be something related to phones or TV where they have a fast growing market that you don't hear much about beyond the occasional press release.

 

[vb]

Siemens Phone Unit is on sale (more or less)

and it uses ATI Imageon

Motorola might be a target.

 

[Reverend]

ATI is buying Beyond3D.com

 

[Dave Baumann]

For $620M they can have it (the URL, that is)!

 

[Simon F]

For $620M they can have it (the URL, that is)!

At which point it will move to "http://www.beyond_daves_wildest_dreams.com"

 

[Druga Runda]

Maybe they'll buy an "N" and call the company ANTI...

as for Dave's idea, the new company would be

Beyond ATI

 

[Albuquerque]

For $620M they can have it (the URL, that is)!

At which point it will move to "http://www.beyond_daves_wildest_dreams.com"

I think we as posters on the forum should be entitled to a prorated piece of that $620mm pie. It is the population of Beyond3D of course that makes it so good

So for my tiny number of posts, I'd get a check for like $4. But for you guys with the quintuple digits in your post counter, you'd be getting a few hundred! w00t!

 

[vb]

I think we as posters on the forum should be entitled to a prorated piece of that $620mm pie.

No way, I think B3d should finance a Kristof's take-over of PowerVR, so we would finally find out WTF happened to Series 5