News Microsoft tipped for AMD buyout

This is indeed a dark omen...

 

well MS and AMD have had xbox tie up since 2005 with the 360

 

That must really gall amd; being linked to Intel in such a way. It makes total sense for Microsoft though; buy the rights to the chip you stick in your products to maximise profit-per-unit. It will make the next generation of consoles very interesting if Sony are then forced to have to go with Intel rather than amd for their apus. Mix it up a bit rather than the convergent evolution we seem to be experiencing.

 

Fudzilla will print trash like this to farm pageviews every now and then. They print so many inane buyout rumors that eventually one of them turns out correct, which they then use as ammunition to try to paint themselves as a serious outlet of journalism.

The INQ is in the same vein, and both of these shitprinters propagated the 'Google buying Valve' rumor a few years back.

 

HL3 confirmed?

 

Yes, Google Glass exclusive!

 

Well it's called FUDzilla for a reason, what's the saying, throw enough mud and eventually some of it will stick.

 

If this happens I will eat my own head.

Terrible idea for Microsoft to get involved directly in the chip business like that and regulators would never let Intel swallow AMD, they would rather it folded than that.

 

Why?

Apple produce their own hardware and software, as stated.

Intel eventually abandoned their disastrous Larrabee project, but clearly had designs on their own line of discreet graphics cards, so why wouldn't they be interested in the old ATI side of the business? Nobody said AMD would be sold off as a whole.

 

The fact the Graphics stuff has been bundled together under their own name [link] makes it easier for that side of things to be sold off separately... you'd be buying the 'Radeon technologies Group' rather than all of AMD

 

Intel? Won't happen. Have never had a problem with any of the basic branded MS hardware I've ever bought so let them pick the company up and keep an Intel alternative going with proper resources whilst the current generation of consoles are still new-ish.

 

Why?

Apple do make there own hardware but even they stay away from the chip design side as all the Macs use off-the-shelf parts. The hardware Microsoft do make has mostly been forced onto them rather than a strategic decision. Xbox to originally push DX, Lumia to push Windows phone, Surface to push Tablets (and originally Windows RT)The chip business, dealing with other OEMs, R&D is a completely different kettle of fish that (as AMD have shown) requires very deep pockets to stay on top of.

Intel are doing nicely with there HD Integrated solutions on there own, there CPU side has nothing to gain from AMD. The only advantage is parallel computing and they seem happy to advance that through x86 scaling with 128+ core solutions on the roadmap.

AMD doesn't offer either company anything they couldn't just buy in far cheaper.

 

Apple make much more money from their mobile/tablet business than their laptop/desktop business. They take an ARM reference design and then design their own chip from there for the iPhone/iPad, so they're already used to designing such things to some extent. If ARM chip designs could keep up with the Intel chips they'd use them for their laptop/desktop probably by now, as controlling the ecosystem is their business model really.

MS could probably make a good fit for the CPU/GPU/APU business and reduce the costs of the Xbox One (and successors) drastically, giving them an edge against Sony. That would be huge as Xbox is their biggest profit maker really, so anything that gives them even a small edge over Sony would be good for them. It might lead to them farming off parts after they get the bits they want though perhaps, keeping the APU/GPU bits and dumping anything that doesn't fit for their Xbox range probably.

More than likely it will be a case of vultures picking the juicy bits when AMD eventually (which seems a distinct possibility atm) go into bankruptcy.

 

As much as I'd like to see AMD remain independent and competitive, Microsoft makes a lot of sense.
They're much more hardware focused these days. Having full control over Surface, xbox and windows phone architecture could be a boon for them.

Intel would be catastrophic for consumers and surely (baring a Trump presidency maybe ) wouldn't be allowed by even the most lenient regulator.

 

I do like the idea though of a graphics chip made in an intel fab.
Nvidia shares would 1/2 overnight

 

Don't forget to post a picture!

 

I call major ********.

Microsoft and Sony both use AMD as a supplier for their competing consoles. Their high-priced lawyers will have written clauses into the supply contracts prohibiting the sale of the manufacturing business to any competing customer. If not, the legal battle and injuctions Sony would unleash on MS would drag the process out long enough for AMD as a whole to go bankrupt anyway. In that event you'd probably see a small spin-off company emerge from the wreckage to continue manufacture of the APUs both MS and Sony need until this console gen goes out of production.

Intel buying the Radeon division is flat-out retarded. Why would Intel give AMD the money it needs to launch Zen? Intel also already dominate the graphics market with two-thirds market share. They can happily afford to wait for AMD to go bankrupt and pick over it's carcass, picking up it's IP at a discount and hiring only the staff it actually needs, rather than going through a complicated merger procedure.

Someone really needs to work on their rumour inventing skills.

 

Ok, maybe it wouldn't quite go down like that between Sony and MS, but can you honestly see either company being at all happy about their primary competitor in one of their most profitable markets sitting down to eat their lunch? And of course AMD have a contract with GlobalFoundries - GF was divested from AMD a while back, kinda tough for them *not* to have come kind of contractual tie-up.

This is also a very different situation than between Apple and Samsung. Apple started buying bits from Samsung in 2008, when the iPhone was a new entry into the then-barely-existent smartphone market and Samsung's phone offerings were kinda poo. If both firms had a crystal ball and could see the situation they're now in, I'm sure they'd think twice before inking the contract, money uber alles or not. You also forget that Apple have (had? not sure) MS under contract to produce Office for Mac, something MS CEO's have been mighty pissed out since.

Microsoft have added Linux support to the cloud because pretty much every other cloud supports Linux - not supporting it is handing a competitive edge to their rivals, even while it also means cannibalising Windows license sales a bit.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you've said, it's entirely possible that MS would be interested and it could go down, but Sony would definitely have something to say about it and could probably torpedo the attempt just by delaying it long enough.