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Technology Stocks : S3 (A LONGER TERM PERSPECTIVE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Voiceman who wrote (13963)	1/10/2000 4:01:00 PM
From: Bill Lin	Respond to of 14577

S3 bought Cirrus' graphics patents, and then bought those patents in auction, putting Intel over a barrel with the Merced chip. So, after renegotiation, They swapped patent rights, which led to Intel suing Via, then Via seeking patent protection by paying S3 money. But while Intel was screwing S3 by not allowing it to produce it own chips, S3 sunk a ton of money into audio chips, and chipset development. All that was lost when Intel refused to release certain information in a timely fashion, and all sorts of money was lost by S3. I think there was a law suit involved, or at least some threatening lawyer talk, by Cirrus against S3, and Cirrus against everyone in the graphics industry. S3 responded by buying their patents. This is my anectote about S3-Cirrus relationship. (the monpolist, the moron, and the putz) BL