AMD Completes $334 Million Deal for SeaMicro

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Yesterday AMD announced the company had completed the transaction to purchase SeaMicro for $334 million. SeaMicro specializes in high-bandwidth microservers. The new acquisition will be known as Data Center Server Solutions. Intel was also in the running to buy SeaMicro, but was ultimately outbid by AMD. Intel has been snacking on grapes of the sour variety ever since the loss. :D

AMD announced its bid to acquire SeaMicro late last month in a surprise move that was seen as undercutting the chip maker's main rival Intel.
 
How can they afford this? I thought they were in the red from the ATI purchase and a whole bunch of red quarters.
 
pretty sure the APUs are selling well, and the graphics part of the business is going well too.
 
How can they afford this? I thought they were in the red from the ATI purchase and a whole bunch of red quarters.

Regardless of the debt, AMD has always held around $2 billion in cash reserve in the last few years.
 
Every time I see a post of how much trouble AMD was in I would say bleh.
And this proves it.
 
And the first seamicro device is supposed to be an apu apparently, but not llano cause it's not good enough. Probably some tweaked trinity part or something
 
Other than the Wii U, there is no indication ATi/AMD will be in either of the other next gen consoles. Also, that is probably a one off payment, so they won't be getting money for every Wii U sold. The next gen consoles could very well be very high powered ARM devices, without the need for power or battery constraints. Most likely, they got this money from finally selling their share of Global Foundries back to global foundries, or used their small stockpile of cash, just for these kind of acquisitions. As for ATi being a good purchase or not, I don't think it's as clear cut as saying it was certainly a good purchase. It definitely helped them with their APU's, but that is about the only good thing they have going for them at the moment. Their graphic division had been making good gains, and was a great performer per its value. Then they decided to jack the prices up 20 or 30+ percent, and proceed to get beat in the majority of categories by what was originally going to be the 560Ti's replacement. The ATi parts/designs are gone, and it is AMD from here on out, and it is not looking like too great of a start.
 
I presume Intel had a set budget for the acquisition?

Then they decided to jack the prices up 20 or 30+ percent, and proceed to get beat in the majority of categories by what was originally going to be the 560Ti's replacement

considering how many months after NVIDIA released their part? ATI has always competed at high end on pricing same as NVIDIA, their GPU's have always fallen in price range with NVIDIA and past releases, also NVIDIA new release is good, but pending on what bench / game you choose, it isnt getting "beat" so to speak...
 
I would be very skeptical about AMD had they not purchased ATI, even though they carry a lot of debt and no longer have their own fabs because of the acquisition I don't see how they could continue to compete with Intel without these fusion chips.

Hopefully they can keep a foothold in the server market.
 
I would doubt that.. intel could easily of afforded this purchase... or just realized they didn't need it?

my thought would be that the direction that Intel is taking with its business is not exactly in line with this kind of company, and if it comes in line, they have have the money and R&D to DIY.

AMD benefits more from an acquisition of this type because it saves some of the groundwork. Also, i see this area as something in line with the current road map for amd. Also as people have stated, console makers are highly interested in the quality apu's that AMD has been putting out, while its certainly not something for the enthusiast gamers in our ranks. An apu setup in a console can be extremely beneficial
 
Other than the Wii U, there is no indication ATi/AMD will be in either of the other next gen consoles.

Um. AMD had already signed a contract for the next Xbox development after the Xbox 360 shipped.

The only console that we do not know for sure that AMD will be in is the Playstation 4, but one of the industries worst kept secrets is that Sony is testing Piledriver for usage in the PS4, primarily because of torrenza and the ability to use a Cell processor in the AMD hardware infrastructure. Torrenza support would allow Sony to simply add PS3 backwards compatibility through just a Cell processor chip in a Socket FM2 package. And before you whine that this isn't possible: IBM RoadRunner.

Also, that is probably a one off payment, so they won't be getting money for every Wii U sold.

bzzzt. Wrong. When Nintendo dealt with SGI for the N64's chip there was a per-royalty on each console sold. When Nintendo dealt with the SGI guys at ArtX there was a per-royalty on each console sold. When Nintendo dealt with the SGI guys at ArtX at ATI there was a per-royalty on each console sold. When Nintendo dealt with the SGI guys at ArtX at ATi at AMD there was per-royalty on each console sold.

AMD actually made a pretty big deal out of both the Gamecube and the Wii consoles providing profits back into the company. The Xbox 360 was the first time that AMD took a "one off" payment for a chip design, and as expected, hasn't exactly been trumpeted as a success story by AMD.

The next gen consoles could very well be very high powered ARM devices, without the need for power or battery constraints.

Wrong again.

We already know that IBM has the processor design contract for the next Xbox.

We also know that IBM has the production contract for the Playstation 4 processor. We also know that AMD just completed a deal that allows AMD to have Fabs -other- than Global Foundaries produce AMD central processors. IBM would be quite happy to fab out a Piledriver processor for Sony's PS4 since such a production would fit the already known contract and IBM wouldn't have to sink more resources into a custom PPC design.


Most likely, they got this money from finally selling their share of Global Foundries back to global foundries, or used their small stockpile of cash, just for these kind of acquisitions.

Finally you said something that actually indicates you haven't been asleep.

As for ATi being a good purchase or not, I don't think it's as clear cut as saying it was certainly a good purchase. It definitely helped them with their APU's, but that is about the only good thing they have going for them at the moment. Their graphic division had been making good gains, and was a great performer per its value. Then they decided to jack the prices up 20 or 30+ percent, and proceed to get beat in the majority of categories by what was originally going to be the 560Ti's replacement. The ATi parts/designs are gone, and it is AMD from here on out, and it is not looking like too great of a start.

Not... looking... like... too great a start.

So. Let me get this straight. The company that has been setting records for power-efficiency per performance... is having a bad start. The company that has been keeping prices high because nobody could provide any competition is off to a bad start.

I retract my earlier comment about you appearing to have woken up.

You haven't.

Please join us in 2012.
 
bzzzt. Wrong. When Nintendo dealt with SGI for the N64's chip there was a per-royalty on each console sold. When Nintendo dealt with the SGI guys at ArtX there was a per-royalty on each console sold. When Nintendo dealt with the SGI guys at ArtX at ATI there was a per-royalty on each console sold. When Nintendo dealt with the SGI guys at ArtX at ATi at AMD there was per-royalty on each console sold.

AMD actually made a pretty big deal out of both the Gamecube and the Wii consoles providing profits back into the company. The Xbox 360 was the first time that AMD took a "one off" payment for a chip design, and as expected, hasn't exactly been trumpeted as a success story by AMD.
You just saved me some typing. You are quite right about the royalties. It's a continuous stream of "free" cash as long as the console sells.
 
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