AMD shares spike due to rumours that Microsoft will buy it

[kingpotnoodle]

And restrict Sonys? But no, Sony probably have a contract and would happily jump to a competitor for future consoles.

Any AMD buyer would surely have to honour the Sony contract, but they'd have no incentive to reduce prices...

[kalniel]

Any AMD buyer would surely have to honour the Sony contract, but they'd have no incentive to reduce prices...

Unless that was also in the contract.

[ltron]

I think this would be a very bad thing, unfortunately I think that Microsoft's focus when it comes to gaming is their XBox one console. I'd worry that if this happens we might be saying goodbye to high end discrete GPUs and CPUs from AMD. Also, I'd be concerned for the continuation of AMD's stance on open standards as Microsoft is not keen particularly when it comes to Linux.

Even Intel would be a better option although I think this can't happen due to monopoly and X86 license concerns. My ideal would be Valve to buy AMD, I think they share similar ideals and are both fairly keen on open standards and growing the PC gaming market in a healthy way. I don't know whether Valve would be interested in doing this, though.

[darmz]

the thought of this makes me sick, very sad times if so!

[Sumanji]

I always thought, back in the day (as in waaaay back in the day... the days of AXP, nForce etc.) that AMD and nVidia would eventually merge, prompting Intel and ATI into a similar arrangement.

I think we would have a much more competitive environment in both CPU and GPU markets if that had happened (assuming nVidia 'enriched' AMD, and Intel did the same to ATI)...

I feel like with AMD/ATI, the two weaker players merged and just made each other even weaker...

[kalniel]

I always thought, back in the day (as in waaaay back in the day... the days of AXP, nForce etc.) that AMD and nVidia would eventually merge, prompting Intel and ATI into a similar arrangement.

Maybe it helped that they were both green

[Sumanji]

Maybe it helped that they were both green

Lolz, yeah perhaps... subliminal colour influences!

I think it was more to do with all the happy memories from AXP/nForce2/Ti4200, then Opteron/nForce4/7900GT for me!

[funke_munke]

Would rather Valve bought them if anyone. They have an interest in pushing hardware now, and lord knows they have the money.

[Sumanji]

I honestly think AMD is too far gone to be thought of as a "fixer-upper" any more... either they turn themselves around (prospect of this is becoming increasingly unlikely), or somebody buys them for the assets (IP mainly, perhaps talent?), and sweeps away the rest.

Sad, but imo true