Several stories and various blogs speculating that IBM Corp. will acquire or merge with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in the near future surfaced this past week. But are the rumors true?
Several stories and various blogs speculating that IBM Corp. will acquire or merge with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in the near future surfaced this past week. But are the rumors true?
I contacted AMD’s spokesperson, Gary Silcott, asking whether there is any truth to the merger/acquisition chatter, and if not, where the notion came from. Silcott’s response was an official “no comment” which in my mind is more affirmation than denial. I can pretty much guarantee that if I asked, “Is AMD is being acquired by archnemesis Intel Corp. next week?” the answer would be a resounding no. But that’s just my assumption.
The acquisition would make sense in part because IBM has a microelectronics division it could expand and already has a close technology development partnership with AMD.
And I could see how AMD could entertain the idea of being acquired or merging with IBM after it fumbled its quad-core Opteron processor rollout. AMD’s Opteron Barcelona processor was officially launched this September and was supposed to ship shortly thereafter. AMD did not to go forward with widespread shipments of Barcelona after it discovered an errata, according to John Fruehe, AMD’s worldwide market development manager of serve and workstation products.
“We don’t believe customers would even see it, but we are conservative and would rather be safe than sorry, so we held back on bulk shipments,” Fruehe said, adding that AMD is on track for volume shipment in April with revision B3.
Unfortunately, AMD’s conservative approach to technology development has kept the company far behind rival Intel, which introduced its first quad-core processor in November 2006 and many others since then.
Throwing salt in the wound, far fewer of the prestigious Top 500 supercomputers were AMD based in 2007. In the 2006 list, there were 113 AMD-based systems, but this past November there were only 79, compared with 354 Intel-based systems, a BetaNews report points out.
AMD isn’t rolling in dough right now either. The chipmaker reported fourth quarter 2007 revenue of $1.77 billion, a net loss of $1.77 billion and an operating loss of $1.68 billion. The company saw an 8% increase compared with the third quarter of 2007 and was flat compared with the fourth quarter of 2006.
Some say that the IBM/AMD acquisition rumors are just that, although it has conveniently boosted AMD stock prices.
Either way, it will be interesting to see how this one pans out. It would be nice to see AMD catch up with Intel on its own accord, but an IBM/AMD merger would yield strong research and development for new technology as well as a formidable competitor to Intel.
Source: http://serverspecs.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/01/31/is-an-ibmamd-merger-on-the-horizon/
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...I contacted AMD’s spokesperson, Gary Silcott, asking whether there is any truth to the merger/acquisition chatter, and if not, where the notion came from. Silcott’s response was an official “no comment” which in my mind is more … ...
http://lostdriveblog.com/2008/01/31/is-an-ibmamd-merger-on-the-horizon/
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