Nivida Buys Out ULi

[maverik-sg1]

Previous speculations that ATi will buy over ULi is broken. It has been confirmed that NVIDIA has signed a deal to acquire Taiwanese chipset maker ULi. Nvidia is paying $52 million US for Taiwanese firm ULI, with the deal subject to regulatory confirmation.

Nvidia will acquire chipset maker ULi Electronics for US$52 million in stock, according to a company press release. The takeover is expected to take effect from the first quarter of Nvidia’s 2007 fiscal year (ends May 1, 2006), said the company. ULi declined to comment prior to a press conference to be held this afternoon.

Through the acquisition, Nvidia is hoping to weaken ATI’s presence in the global chipset market, noted industry sources. ULi currently supplies southbridge chips for use with ATI Technologies’ Pentium 4 northbridge chips. A December 7 article pointed out that ATI may bump Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) from being the third-largest core-logic chipset supplier worldwide this quarter. An estimate by Mercury Research stated that ATI’s ranking in the global core-logic chipset market will climb to third place in the first quarter of 2006 with a 15% market share, followed by SiS with 12%.

In addition, Nvidia is looking to enhance its relationship with United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) through the acquisition of ULi, the sources said. Nvidia currently places its major GPU and chipset orders with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is an exclusive 90nm chip supplier for the graphics chip vendor, the sources added.

 

[maverik-sg1]

Press release from ULi and NVIDIA

TAIPEI, TAIWAN and SANTA CLARA, CA—DECEMBER 14, 2005— NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ULi Electronics Inc. (ULi), one of the PC industry’s most highly-regarded core logic developers. Headquartered in Taipei, ULi also has offices in Hsinchu; Shanghai; Shenzhen; and San Jose, California.

ULi is recognized for its innovative core logic technology as well as other multimedia and embedded products. The acquisition represents NVIDIA’s ongoing investment in its platform solution strategy, which leverages the acclaimed NVIDIA nForce® media and communications processors (MCPs) and NVIDIA® GeForce® and NVIDIA Quadro® graphics processing units (GPUs). Additionally, the acquisition is expected to strengthen the Company’s sales, marketing, and customer engineering presence in Taiwan and China.

Under the terms of the agreement, NVIDIA will pay 19 New Taiwan Dollars in cash for each outstanding ULi share and stock option, for a total of approximately $52 million (USD). The acquisition, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of the Company’s fiscal year 2007, remains subject to the satisfaction of regulatory requirements and other customary closing conditions.

Alex Kuo, president and chief executive officer, ULi, will join NVIDIA as a senior executive responsible for MCP sales, marketing, and support functions in Asia. NVIDIA intends to supply ULi customers with current products for the foreseeable future.

Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer, NVIDIA, stated: "Alex and his team have built a company admired for creating innovative products in the core logic arena. The acquisition provides an opportunity for NVIDIA to leverage a very talented engineering team in order to expand our MCP initiatives while building closer relationships with customers in Asia."

"At ULi, we have always believed that the opportunities in the MCP space are tremendous," added Mr. Kuo. "The strength of the NVIDIA world-class engineering and marketing organizations will enable the ULi team to take product design and development to the next level."

NVIDIA is the largest AMD core logic supplier in the world (Source: Mercury Research, Third Quarter 2005 PC CPU Report). NVIDIA nForce MCP revenue has increased 100 percent year-over-year and has achieved record revenue for five consecutive quarters.

 

[boardy]

DAMN YOU!!!! Got there before I did!

Interesting on this tho - http://theinquirer.net/?article=28333

 

[scorchio]

I'm sure this will be a blow to ATI as they were interested in the product.

 

[SAS91]

ATI. Not radeon hehe thats only the name for there mainstream graphics cards