Apple Supplier Imagination Technologies Puts Itself Up for Sale
June 22 2017 - 7:45AM
Dow Jones News
By Rory Gallivan
LONDON-- Imagination Technologies Group PLC, a small U.K.
technology firm which has been one of Apple Inc.'s important
suppliers, said Thursday it has put itself up for sale after
receiving a number of takeover approaches.
Imagination's stock rose sharply Thursday though the shares
remain below where they were trading earlier this year. In April,
Imagination said Apple would stop using the chip designer's
technology in its devices, sending shares tumbling more than
70%.
Imagination said at the time that Apple was working on its own
designs for graphic processing units, the technology Imagination
supplied to the iPhone maker. GPUs power videos and other
animations on smartphones, computers and other gadgets.
An intellectual-property-based business worth about $500 million
in market value, Imagination doesn't manufacture chips itself.
The firm had separately said it was pursuing a formal
dispute-resolution process with Apple. Management had previously
said it didn't believe Apple could design GPUs without infringing
on Imagination's intellectual property.
It was unclear how those talks were proceeding. Imagination said
Thursday it remains in dispute with Apple.
Officials at Apple weren't immediately available for
comment.
Imagination said it "has received interest from a number of
parties for a potential acquisition of the whole group." It said it
has "decided to initiate a formal sale process for the group and is
engaged in preliminary discussions with potential bidders." The
firm didn't provide details.
The company also said it has received proposals about buying two
of its non-graphics businesses which it put on the block in
May.
Write to Rory Gallivan at rory.gallivan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 22, 2017 07:30 ET (11:30 GMT)
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