techno foxx
17 Sep 2017
Ex IMG employees working for Apple techno foxJust one more point regarding the Ex IMG Employees now working for Apple, if they are using any of the same IP developed for IMG, then they are also knowingly taking part in criminal activity and breaking the law in the UK, if this does go to court and IMG wins, they can then go after the EX IMG workers, if they were knowingly aiding in the stealing IMG IP and they will face a future date in court followed by huge fines and or prison.
EyesonHawk2
17 Sep 2017
Apples GPU and a possible lawsuit! From wccftech:[link] Apple’s Self-Designed GPU Could Land A Lawsuit On Tim Cook’s DeskOne of the most significant announcements of the September 12 Apple event was the company’s self-designed GPU – yet it was the announcement that got the least amount of applause. It is clear that the audience did not immediately get the ramifications associated with Apple designing its own GPU featured on the A11 chip. Without any sort of exaggeration, I can say that it was probably one of the most important unveils of the event (yes even more important than the iPhone X) if not the most important.Why you ask? Well, because a GPU is one of the critical parts of any smartphone and protected by a crisscrossing mesh of hundreds if not thousands of IP patents all held by only a handful of companies. Making a “new” and “self-designed” GPU would be akin to saying we have “invented” a new wheel. The fact that all modern GPUs need to have universal components and design (for any modern API to take advantage of them, including Apple’s own Metal API) makes the “fundamental” building blocks of almost all GPUs similar in nature. In fact, it is so difficult (if not impossible) not to tread on each other’s toes that all big names either have IP ranging back to the 1990s and early 2000s or have cross licensing deals in place that prevent them from suing the other for IP infringement.To be clear, I am not saying that Apple did not design their own GPU, I am saying it would be almost impossible for them to design anything resembling a modern GPU and not infringe on existing GPU IP. The way to move forward (without any risk of a lawsuit) would be either to acquire said IP by purchasing a company or by engaging in a licensing agreement with a company that already owns it.Here’s where the story gets more interesting. The last iteration of Apple’s iPhone was using the GPU made by Imagination Technologies LON:IMG 131.01 0.97%, specifically the PowerVR Series 7XT GT7600. In fact, they have been making these GPUs for Apple ever since their agreement in 2008. Recently however, the company stated that it would be stopping its use of all Imagination Technologies IP within the next two years and has basically dumped the company leading the company to lose almost half of its value in the market and the board of directors putting Img Tec up for sale. Here is a simple fact though, unless Apple has invented something completely alien, revolutionary, and utterly different from all modern variations of the word ‘GPU’ it will actually be open to IP infringement going forward.Before we go any further, let me answer an obvious question: If Imagination can make GPUs, why can’t Apple? Well, the answer to this is quite simple. Imagination’s IP cover extends back to the late 1980s which includes a cross licensing agreement over its PowerVR portfolio with NEC in 1995. Since then the company has worked on building its own graphics portfolio to the extent that it was able to enter into a cross licensing deal with Qualcomm (2011) which includes Img Tec’s PowerVR graphics.Qualcomm on the other hand, once again had their own IP in place since the early 2000s and also received additional protection when they acquired AMD’s Handset division as well as all related IP (which itself extends back into the 1990s) in 2009 not to mention the cross licensing deal with Imagination Technologies in 2011 – and they still got sued by NVIDIA!So what happens now? Potential lawsuit or deal behind closed doorsI hope you can see the pattern forming here. All parties that can design and manufacture GPUs without consequence have an IP cover in place that usually extends back into the 1990s or traces back to NVIDIA or AMD. In fact, one of the reasons that Qualcomm won the NVIDIA V Qualcomm battle was because the latter had acquired IP cover from AMD in 2009.So while Apple can design its own GPUs, if it does so without a
Hub
17 Sep 2017
Re: No Subject - Telegraph Article Satur... Why it would be throw a 'wobble' into the takeover process?If the UK government are seeking to protect UK business and IP, then why did they allow Apple to set up offices next door to IMG and steal some of IMG's employees?ARM was sold to overseas buyers for £24billion+. The UK gov did nothing. So why on earth would they get involved with a minor takeover deal on IMG which would be worth around £500m to £600m at best.Of course... if a heavy weight $820bln company with major influence were to lobby or wine and dine a few government MP's then that might suggest suddenly why IMG is apparently on the governments radar lol!I'm sorry... but there is no way at all that the UK government can justify blocking any oversea's purchase of IMG as the company does not have major value in the greater context. It is not ARM holdings and even Apple have said they are done with using IMG in the future... well that's what they have said.So all in all, you have to begin to think that there is something very very very 'important' about IMG otherwise Apple would not be making an @rse of itself over their chips plans.My hunch is, Apple know that they can't escape IMG's IP and that if Samsung or another gets hold of it, they are stuffed in the courts for years to come. Afterall, why would employ IMG staff which ONLY know the IMG way of doing things, if you wanted to say you were n longer using IMG IP. Whether in oatent form or in the heads of their EX designers... Apple cannot escape IMG's grip on them in IP terms.Roll on first bid and lets hope Apple don't get a look in and it goes to Samsung or another main competitor. Apple should be ashamed of themselves.HUB
EyesonHawk2
17 Sep 2017
Times article - Sunday Brutal Apple leaves nothing to ImaginationWhen Apple decided to rent a 22,500 sq ft office in St Albans earlier this year, one could have been tempted to celebrate a milestone investment in Britain by the world’s biggest company.Yet it’s not quite that simple. The technology giant had set up shop just down the road from the Hertfordshire headquarters of Imagination Technologies, whose graphics chips have powered every iteration of the Apple iPhone, iPad and Watch.Apple had just notified Imagination that it would be terminating its contract and designing its own graphics chips in the future — crashing the British chipmaker’s shares by half.Around the same time, Apple was advertising for graphics chip designers to work at a facility in “south Hertfordshire”. At least two dozen former Imagination staff have jumped ship for Apple in the past year or so, including the company’s former chief operating officer, John Metcalfe.It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that the “Apple-designed” graphics processor in the new iPhone X unveiled last week appears to contain technology covered by Imagination’s patents.After picking apart the technical disclosures, analysts at the stockbroker Numis are among those who reckon that Apple will, indeed, need to keep paying royalties to Imagination for its new range of phones. The new chips appear to lean heavily on its “tile-based rendering” and “texture compression” systems.Nonetheless, the market reaction, on balance, was to keep selling Imagination’s shares.When all is said and done, Apple will be the winner — even if it copied Imagination’s homework. That was the market’s view, certainly.Apple and Imagination entered a formal legal dispute earlier this summer in relation to the contract row. The American titan insists that some of the British company’s claims about its past behaviour are “inaccurate and misleading” — particularly in regard to the warnings it gave about cutting ties.Whatever the legal outcome, there are some broader points to consider, however. Cutting through the chaff of Apple’s typically hyperbolic product launch day last week, the main lesson drawn was that chief executive Tim Cook is building ever more of the key infrastructure that drives his products in-house.Why bother with messy third-party contracts when you can do it all yourself, to your own specification and your own timeframe?With a surplus cash pile of $261bn (£192bn) — roughly equivalent to the combined market value of BP, Glaxo Smith Kline, BAE Systems and Marks & Spencer — in-house development makes perfect sense for Apple.Yet if there is even the slightest sign that the American giant is riding roughshod over the suppliers that helped it reach its lofty position, the messianic cult from Cupertino should be brought to heel by every regulatory force on the planet.There is a popular notion that everything that happens in the digital world somehow takes place on a level playing field. It has never been true, and it is certainly a fallacy in an era when Apple, Google and Facebook are the gatekeepers to success or failure for just about every business on the planet.At one stage, Apple thought about buying Imagination. Now, mostly as a result of Apple’s decision to cut its dealings with the company, Imagination is most likely to be sold imminently toan investment fund backed by the Chinese state.It may have created the technology inside all 700m iPhones in circulation, but that has not been enough to secure its future among the brutal behemoths of Silicon Valley.Remaster for a sounder futureGroupthink is a dangerous business. One of the less-examined theories about what went wrong in the financial crisis is the role of the MBA graduate.When the first generation of Master of Business Administration students emerged into the workforce in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they brought a financial discipline and clear-headed thinking that shook up t
EyesonHawk2
17 Sep 2017
Re: No Subject - Telegraph Article Saturday It will just throw in another wobble for IMG's possible sale/auction!Full Telegraph article:Sale of chip pioneer Imagination raises China fearsThe Government has expressed concern over a potential takeover of the British iPhone microchip designer by a private equity firm backed by China.Officials have made informal contact with bankers working on the auction of Imagination Technologies about interest from Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, which is based in Silicon Valley but funded by Beijing authorities. It is not clear whether the Government would attempt to block a sale over security concerns, with its involvement so far described by a source as “lots of bluster and nothing very helpful”.Imagination has put itself up for sale after Apple pulled the plug on the long-standing graphics technology deal that has been the bedrock of its business, sending the shares tumbling 70pc.The first iPhone to rely on microchips designed in-house by the Silicon Valley giant was unveiled last week.The Sunday Telegraph revealed the approach from Canyon Bridge in July. The firm is working with advisers at Citigroup on a potential bid. Security fears have already disrupted Canyon Bridge’s microchip ambitions in the United States.President Trump last week blocked an agreed $1.3bn (£0.96bn) takeover of Lattice Semiconductor, a hi-tech manufacturer based in Oregon.Steven Mnuchin, US treasury secretary, said the move was consistent with the administration’s “commitment to take all actions necessary to ensure the protection of US national security”.It sparked fury in Beijing, where the communist party has made international development of the Chinese microchip industry a central plank of its economic plans. Officials said “security checks on a sensitive investment is a nation’s legitimate right, but it shouldn’t be used as a protectionist tool”.It was one of a handful of times in the last three decades when presidential authority has been used to block a foreign takeover.In an attempt to avoid Trump scrutiny over Imagination, Canyon Bridge is understood to be focused on a potential bid that would exclude its US unit.The Hertfordshire-based company, once valued on the stock market at nearly £2bn, paid $100m for the business in 2012 in an ill-fated attempt to expand beyond graphics technology and challenge ARM in the market for general mobile processors. The planned takeover would be a test of Theresa May’s determination to subject foreign takeovers in key sectors of the economy to more study.The Conservative manifesto promised new powers so that “the Government can require a bid to be paused to allow greater scrutiny”.However, Mrs May’s weak showing at the general election meant the proposals did not appear in the Queen’s Speech.Canyon Bridge could yet face a rival bid from an industry player such as Rambus, a US memory microchip giant seeking to diversify. ARM has ruled out a bid, according to sources familiar with its plans.
brooky
16 Sep 2017
techno foxx
16 Sep 2017
Re: IMG Powervr also in GPU based AI race techno foxjust for those who might have missed this from IMG website on Ai?It is strange their is one rule for valuing this new GPU linked AI technology in the US marketplace, that is completely missing from the UK stock market? [link]
Hub
16 Sep 2017
Re: IMG Powervr also in GPU based AI race Yes - looks like the entire semi-conductor market looks chip/cores and everything else is back in demand.Canyon best get on with it as values are soaring and the competition are fighting for every edge they can find.HUB
techno foxx
15 Sep 2017
IMG Powervr also in GPU based AI race [link]
Hub
14 Sep 2017
Re: Question The first offer is normally lower than the final offer. Bit like buying a house. You want some wriggle room.When teh stock market looked and acted like a stock market rather than the casino that it has become today, takeover offers were generally pitched at 30% above closing price.The MIP's situation which is circa £60m to £70m in value (so say the analysts) may be stripped out of the initial bid in some form or another. Need to circumnavigate the US rules.As mentioned before, I would expect first bid (inc MIPS in some form) to be aroudn 195p. The sp has been up to 150p several times suggesting the usual 30% premium from there on would be 45p and total of 195p.I would hope that 'another' counter bid comes in from ARM or Qualcomm or better still Samsung and that gets the price to 225p. The latter is still a decent 30% below where IMG were prior to Apple's public divorce.It's not teh ongoing Apple rev that is of interest to the buyers. It's the IP. IMG are ahead of Apple regardless of what Apple say. They will continue to lead in their field and Samsung would benefit a great deal from any potential legal moves in future which could tie up Apple or at very least make their lives less comfortable and buy samsung much needed time.Personally, I don't think Samsung are far off being able to offer a phone that really is better than the iphone and alot cheaper.Apple know this and need to get those currently using 5's, 6's and 7's to upgrade to 8's before they lose the customer to Samsung. They plan to upgrade the system software and add ons on a move that will see ONLY iphone 8's updatable etc.That leaves 5's to 7's with limited OS upgrades.Interesting times but the semiconductor / VR / AR area looks very HOT to me at present.Just remember, there are a bucket load of shorters all hemmed in at present with no where to go. If a bid does come in on Monday at 190's, they are going to be toast.HUB
Tired and Confused
14 Sep 2017
Question Guess everyone is here to make money? That is the purpose of investment for PI's?So it would be interesting to discuss what the 'take out' price for IMG will be, yes?Say current share price is 138p, what offer price is worth the risk of sitting in IMG with capital tied up and no divi?Love the IP, exciting, innovative I get all that, always have so wouldn't it be refreshing just for once to speculate on what the knock out offer price will be.and leave the techie stuff to one side for a while.My guess, 10% to 15% premium on current price tops any other views.
Hub
14 Sep 2017
Re: Trump kills off Canyon deal with Lattice... Not sure I agree with the last para on timelines. There is no rush for Canyon to make their bid on IMG but I would guess that there may be some timeframes outlined to focus minds.The press think Canyon are ready to pitch an offer and teh Lattice issue now put to bed confirms their kitty is FULL.So just a matter of waiting now and if nothing appears next week, then I certainly wouldn't be writing them off. The MIPS issue may take time to resolve with other parties involved which means it's not just in Canyon's or IMG's hands.HUB
Sarahs husband
14 Sep 2017
Apple's iPhone 8 and 8 Plus launch overshadowed by iPhone X [link]
EyesonHawk2
14 Sep 2017
Re: Trump kills off Canyon deal with Lattice... Trump bars Chinese-backed firm from buying U.S. chipmaker Lattice......ReutersThis from Reuters article:QUOTE: "The U.S. refusal potentially hurts Canyon Bridge’s ability to acquire other Western semiconductor companies. Most of its acquisition targets have U.S. operations, making them subject to a CFIUS review.Palo Alto, California-based Canyon Bridge has been working on a bid for British semiconductor company Imagination Technology Group, sources have previously said. If Canyon Bridge clinches that deal, it would also be subject to CFIUS review since Imagination Technologies acquired U.S. chip designer MIPS in 2013.While Canyon Bridge could choose to divest MIPS, which accounts for a small fraction of Imagination Technologies’ business, there is no certainty that would be enough to resolve all CFIUS issues, according to the sources.Imagination Technologies declined to comment."Full article:[link]
Dave Sweeney
13 Sep 2017
Trump kills off Canyon deal with Lattice 
[link] the $1.3billion Canyon had on the table to buy Lattice is still in their pockets, they have had their time to do due diligence on IMG , and the Apple announcement last night contra to people whomI believe are clueless will engender no fears, there is NO way IMHO that IMG IP is not integral to A11, it's using TExture based rendering , I bet you a bottom dollar that when the SDK is published it's not far off that for the A10 , we shall see.It doesn't matter really, IMG KNOW and potential buyers will know, if Canyon are REALLY interested we should see a money offer by Monday, if not by Monday then it's not looking quite so bright in the short-term , we shall s
