ATIC buying Chartered!

[2senile]

http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217700724

Singapore's Chartered has received the bid from Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC), a technology investment company that is wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, according to the report.

Thoughts?

Is this possibly for more capacity to add to that of Global Foundries or simply part of the Abu Dhabi master plan to become less reliant on oil revenues?

 

[rjc]

Thoughts?

Global Foundries on its own is not big enough on its own to be successful. The money already invested in GF is a great risk unless unless more scale is added.

Also gives them access to lower cost asian fabs, GF has weakness cause of the costs associated with their location. Finally New York state is having tremendous financial shortfalls (thanks to wall st) likely to welch somewhat on previous concessions making the investment less certain of profitability.

 

[2senile]

Be a problem with Intel & the agreement regarding x86 so I'm wondering how Chartered would fit in with Global Foundries just now.

I remember they did some work for AMD on CPUs in the past but with the rumoured TSMC 40nm "issues" I'm now wondering if Chartered has the where with all to handle bleeding edge GPUs.

..... or do you think buying into Chartered is something that is for down the line? Say, ~12mths?

 

[2senile]

Oooops!

http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSTRE54S17520090529

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Chartered Semiconductor (CSMF.SI), a Singapore-listed contract chip maker, denied a newspaper report that Abu Dhabi's Advance Technology Investment Co (ATIC) had bid for Temasek's majority stake in the firm.

Might be a non event but

A Temasek spokeswoman said it was "inappropriate" to comment on unsourced reports.

Chartered might not have received an offer but Temasek, who hold the 60% stake in question, seem to want to unload. They approached TSMC last year about buying the stake in Chartered according to the article.

 

[rjc]

The WSJ thinks they are in negotiation now:
Temasek Considers Offer
and more recently:
Temasek weighs sale of chip making unit

"Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. is considering an offer for its stake in Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. for 2.35 billion Singapore dollars (US$1.63 billion), two people familiar with the situation said."

I think if ATIC dont get what they want here, are going to go start looking elsewhere. Is not so much about the glamour chips ie cpu's and gpu's, more the plain vanilla commodity chips needed by world today.

 

[rjc]

Finally looks like the Chartered bid is on, found here:

Overall, the deal is worth $3.9 Billion, $1.9 Billion in cash, the rest in debt and shares. This represents a 14.2% premium over the 30-day trading average for Chartered.

Full Details: ATIC Makes bid to Acquire Chartered

They obviously were feeling some pressure to "go big or go home"

From TSMC a week ago:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/169317/tsmc_chairman_predicts_tough_victory_over_globalfoundries.html
Chang compared the ground breaking of a new US$4.2 billion chip factory by GlobalFoundries in New York last week as a strategy of total commitment. They must stand, there is no retreat, he said, likening the strategy to that of the Germans at the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II. The German generals were ordered to maintain their position at Stalingrad after they were surrounded by Russian troops.

"Like Stalin, I have no doubt of the outcome," he said.

 

[Davros]

a technology investment company that is wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi,

On a related note:
did you know that most people from the Persian Gulf don't like the Flintstones, but the people of Abu Dhabi do

 

[digitalwanderer]

did you know that most people from the Persian Gulf don't like the Flintstones, but the people of Abu Dhabi do

I did not know that, any idea why? :|

 

[2senile]

I did not know that, any idea why? :|

Abu Dhabi do

*slaps DW"

Toshiba were supposedly in talks with Chartered & GF, for 28nm next year.

I really wish somebody would explain to me, in very simple terms, how AMD will be avoiding the pitfalls of the agreement with Intel ... & when said agreement expires/comes up for renewal.

 

[pcchen]

To my understanding, the last time AMD and Intel signed a patent cross license agreement is in 2000, effective on 2001. Since the term is 10 years so it expires on 2011. So it's expected that they will have a new agreement talk in 2010. I don't think Intel will refuse to sign a new agreement with AMD because Intel also needs quite some patents from AMD. Although I'd say that a new agreement could be very different from the old one.

 

[Rufus]

Here's an interesting rumor I saw mentioned in one of the ATIC/Chartered articles:
Rambus up on M&A talk, Samsung says no plan to buy

Would Rambus being bought effectively end their various legal campaigns?

 

[Sound_Card]

*slaps DW"

Toshiba were supposedly in talks with Chartered & GF, for 28nm next year.

I really wish somebody would explain to me, in very simple terms, how AMD will be avoiding the pitfalls of the agreement with Intel ... & when said agreement expires/comes up for renewal.

What will Intel do without x64? I don't really think means all that much to intel atl all.

 

[trinibwoy]

did you know that most people from the Persian Gulf don't like the Flintstones, but the people of Abu Dhabi do

Hahaha, now that's funny

 

[Davros]

you'll be telling that to all your mates

 

[3dilettante]

Be a problem with Intel & the agreement regarding x86 so I'm wondering how Chartered would fit in with Global Foundries just now.

I remember they did some work for AMD on CPUs in the past but with the rumoured TSMC 40nm "issues" I'm now wondering if Chartered has the where with all to handle bleeding edge GPUs.

..... or do you think buying into Chartered is something that is for down the line? Say, ~12mths?

ATIC is its own entity and GF still has a 50/50 split in controlling shares between AMD and Abu Dhabi.

I don't see any claims of a corprorate merging of ATIC's semiconductor assets.
Unless otherwise stated, Chartered and GF could exist separately under the ATIC umbrella.

edit:
Never mind.
I found another article outlining the corporate transition for combining the two.
AMD's probably counting on the fact that, as a subsidiary, whatever GF does would be the actions of a quasi-independent entity.
Even if this is the case, it seems awfuly generous of ATIC to purchase and combine another foundry with GF without some kind of dilution of AMD's ownership or control of GF.
The wording of the licensing agreement doesn't seem to offer much more wiggle room, as the spin-off action already cuts profit dispensation and control shares almost to the limit of what's in the agreement.

AMD, as partial owner of GF, would find that ATIC has "gifted" it a whole extra foundry division that AMD didn't contribute towards purchasing. Perhaps ATIC has extracted some other promise or there is some reason why AMD's diluted ownership won't breach a clause in its x86 agreement.

 

[entity279]

I found another article outlining the corporate transition for combining the two.

That's amazing

 

[AlexV]

ATIC is its own entity and GF still has a 50/50 split in controlling shares between AMD and Abu Dhabi.

I don't see any claims of a corprorate merging of ATIC's semiconductor assets.
Unless otherwise stated, Chartered and GF could exist separately under the ATIC umbrella.

edit:
Never mind.
I found another article outlining the corporate transition for combining the two.
AMD's probably counting on the fact that, as a subsidiary, whatever GF does would be the actions of a quasi-independent entity.
Even if this is the case, it seems awfuly generous of ATIC to purchase and combine another foundry with GF without some kind of dilution of AMD's ownership or control of GF.
The wording of the licensing agreement doesn't seem to offer much more wiggle room, as the spin-off action already cuts profit dispensation and control shares almost to the limit of what's in the agreement.

AMD, as partial owner of GF, would find that ATIC has "gifted" it a whole extra foundry division that AMD didn't contribute towards purchasing. Perhaps ATIC has extracted some other promise or there is some reason why AMD's diluted ownership won't breach a clause in its x86 agreement.

Or they'll not fuse Chartered into GirlfriendFoundries until the x86 agreement is renegociated, which IIRC happens soon since the current one is about to expire

 

[2senile]

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090909-714020.html

Speaking at a technology conference in New York, Meyer said the purchase by Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Co., or ATIC, of Chartered Semi won't have an impact, as GlobalFoundries and Chartered will remain separate entities.

Well that solves any worries I had on that score. From what others have posted I would expect the "separate entities" to be merged in the future. Only sensible in the normal business world I think.

What will Intel do without x64? I don't really think means all that much to intel atl all

I was under the impression the party in breach of the agreement would no longer have access to the other party IP while the other party would still be able to use IP belonging to the party in breach, which was my original concern in this instance.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

I'm under the same impression, but that would require a breach of the contract which, to me, is not the same as not renewing the agreement. So, as I see it, Intel would have to get an arbitrator to agree that AMD is in breach of the agreement before the renegotiations.

 

[iwod]

The thing is, When AMD were successful when Pentium 4 was crap, they did not even have the capacity to produce enough chips. For Retail and OEM Makers.

GF is not any bigger then AMD at that time. Producing ATI and ST chips with GF dont make much sense. If AMD ever have another shot ( By looking at Intel 's roadmap they wont have any chance in the next 3 - 4 years )