There was some talk of AMD buyout (which always happen when the share price goes down). I think the probability of this happening within the next 12 months is higher than it has ever been. Mainly due to the problems of succession (it is supposed happen in 2002). I don't see this going smoothly.
The last thing Jerry wants is for his baby, his vision to die, so he needs someone with brains and balls to lead AMD (I am not sure if Hector has either).
I would rule out the usual suspects: Compaq, HP, IBM, Sun. No Balls.
I hate to say this, but I see 2 possibilities - good and bad. Via = bad, Nvidia = good. Both companies have balls, they may or may not have the means to buy AMD.
There could be a possibility of a "merger" with Nvidia, and therefore there would be no need for a successor. Nvidia would take over corporate management. There is a lot of spare fab capacity today, but GPUs are going in the same direction as CPUs, and there a need for more and more advanced process technologies, and capable fabs. The graphics GPUs may soon need to be on the same advanced stage as CPUs soon. There would be good match, I believe between these 2 companies.
This move would not necessarily anger anyone that AMD cares about. Via is a competitor, Ali and Sis are not that important, and they could continue to sell alternative chipsets, ATI, Matrox are "don't care". Most importantly, OEMs would not be negatively affected, and MSFT would probably just go with AMD/Nvidia with future X-Box revisions - Hammer based.
Comments?
Joe |
