HEXUS.beans :: ATI and AMD deal is on...

[DR]

http://www.amd.com/us-en/0,,3715_141...l?redir=goBG01

[Stoo]

hmm.. no more ATi after the merger then according to the Q&A:

Q: What will the combined company operate as?
A: The combined company will operate as AMD.

[chuckskull]

I'm expecting some ****-hot AM3 chipsets and DX10 graphics cards (maybe DX11 now, depends how long the merger takes to really affect both companies).

But still mergers are rarely good for the consumer.

[father smurf]

Originally Posted by Stoo

hmm.. no more ATi after the merger then according to the Q&A:

unless its used as the grapfix devision trading name?

[Stoo]

Seems a distinct possibility, especially given the strength of the brand in the market, but I'd have said it would be more a graphics card brand, rather than a division trading name..

AMD ATi X2100XTX anyone?

[chuckskull]

I cant see tham ditching the ATi brandname. Most likely they'll be sold ati branded with a little AMD powered sticker on them etc.

[Xaneden]

I'm surprised they've decided to merge and not continue as two companies with specific ties. Still, seems to be the trend with these big buy-outs these days... I didn't think it would happen, but I just install 'Adobe Flash Player'....

Still, that news article on the AMD site talks of a new headquarters etc, when in fact it'll stip operate as AMD.... Seems another odd move.

[jonazo]

This is sad. AMD will finance this out of cash, topped up with some USD 2.5bn of new debt, so they won't have to issue new shares, but if I was an AMD shareholder or business partner, I would still not be too pleased.

Looking at the website, it looks like they will be focussing on integrated systems, especially other than the desktop markets. I hope that means low power consumption, not cheap, low-end performance.

I cannot see a convincing business case - synergies from sharing costs or customers, savings from vertical integration or some new, killer joint project on the horizon that really, truely requires common ownership (but then, what do I know?? ). AMD are trying to sell the deal on all these points, but I'm not yet convinced.

Maybe ATi is strapped for cash, or something, and can't keep up with nvidia anymore. Or are they just terribly good buddies with the guys at AMD? Anyway, it looks to me like for whatever reason, most of the current management of ATi is throwing in the towel.

(Who knows? Maybe this deal will somehow sharpen-up their Catalyst drivers...)

However I can think of reasons not to like the idea of this deal, as other contributors have mentioned. At the moment you can mix-n-match CPU/chipset combinations with GPU's without any problem, as far as I know, but how can we be sure that continues, once ATi belongs to Intel's rival? Yes, there will probably be less choice of PC configuration, at least. Imagine if nvidia and Intel merge in response?