Number Nine's Revolution 3D is highly regarded in the high performance video card category. It won the PC Computing MVP Award for best High Performance Graphics product, and the Editor's Choice award from PC Magazine, Byte, VAR Business, and PC Graphics & Video magazines. Five number one finishes, not bad. The Ticket to Ride controller chip in the Revolution 3D graphics accelerator card, has also been recognized by PC Magazine (UK) as a runner up in the PC Magazine (UK) 1997 Technical Innovation Awards.
They are a small company with I believe only about 13 million shares and a share price under $2 so they should be relatively cheap. This could be a cheap acquisition and possibly a good match between S3's marketing skills and Nine's high end card and chip.
In regards to the other high end chip companies, aren't several of them partially owned subsidiaries or some how tied to very large companies and therefore hard or impossible to acquire? With Number Nine they could also move into ATI's profitable board business, though they would then be competing with their own add in card customers, or should I say ex add in card customers since they seem to have lost most of Diamond's and STB's business. I am guessing that there are higher margins in complete solutions rather than selling mass market chips. STB, ATI, and Matrox have done great the last year while many of the chip only companies have been having a hard time.
A deal such as this would surely profit Number Nine shareholders and could also be a cheap solution to S3's lack of a high end graphics solution. On the other hand, having a chip such as the Riva 128 would probably even be better, but at what price?
As always, these are just a few of my thoughts, and are not based on any known information. As such, these speculations are intended for discussion only and should not be used as a basis for investing in the aforementioned companies. |
