Samsung Rumored to Be Acquiring AMD

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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There has been a persistent rumor making the rounds in the news channels this week and we must emphasize the rumor part: Samsung is considering the acquisition of chip manufacturer AMD. If this rumor proves out to be true, what would you think of the proposed acquisition and how would it affect the chip industry in general?

More and more computing workload is getting shifted from CPUs to GPUs, and therefore AMD’s Radeon tech makes a tempting target for companies like Samsung.
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There has been a single uncorroborated rumor from a South Korean daily online newspaper. How this one is different from all the prior uncorroborated rumors that turned out to be baseless is unclear. :p

Seriously, there is only a vague reference in that article to there being a rumor, with not even a shadowy source behind it (nothing like "sources inside Samsung (or AMD) claim"). It's just random fluff about Samsung and AMD, with 75% of all current tech buzzwords thrown in.
 
That there's too much consolidation, and by 2080 we'll probably have a world war of the two remaining corporate empires, Walmart vs Chevron who will own all brands on the planet.
 
Ducman69 said:
That there's too much consolidation, and by 2080 we'll probably have a world war of the two remaining corporate empires, Walmart vs Chevron who will own all brands on the planet.
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Don't forget Taco Bell. In the future, all restaurants are Taco Bell.
 
Darksword said:
Don't forget Taco Bell. In the future, all restaurants are Taco Bell.
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But Taco Bell was acquired by Walmart in the great franchise war of 2071, later known simply as "The Company".

Weyland-Yutani.gif
 
If Samsung does acquire AMD, I would like to see Samsung continue to produce enthusiast graphics adapters which are infused with Samsung technology. The need to keep competition alive is greater than ever else we, the consumer, will lose as company's without competition will practically cease to innovate.
 
AceGoober said:
If Samsung does acquire AMD, I would like to see Samsung continue to produce enthusiast graphics adapters which are infused with Samsung technology. The need to keep competition alive is greater than ever else we, the consumer, will lose as company's without competition will practically cease to innovate.
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Samsung probably has no interest in the discrete graphics industry, consider that they are making products that support a platform made by one of their competitors(aka Microsoft). I would imagine they would be more interested in their patent portfolio and gpu technology to enhance their mobile chipset. They could however be looking to head off Intel before they become a serious threat in mobile as well.
 
AceGoober said:
If Samsung does acquire AMD, I would like to see Samsung continue to produce enthusiast graphics adapters which are infused with Samsung technology. The need to keep competition alive is greater than ever else we, the consumer, will lose as company's without competition will practically cease to innovate.
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Now I could see AMD licensing a graphics chipset to Samsung, they already did to Qualcomm. But there is pretty much no chance the whole company would go to them.
 
Chaos Machine said:
Samsung probably has no interest in the discrete graphics industry, consider that they are making products that support a platform made by one of their competitors(aka Microsoft). I would imagine they would be more interested in their patent portfolio and gpu technology to enhance their mobile chipset. They could however be looking to head off Intel before they become a serious threat in mobile as well.
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Samsung certainly wants AMD for their graphics. AMD being in the situation where they are would probably have no problem with this. But didn't AMD say they were going to make ARM chips as well? Not that Samsung needs AMD for that, but it could be beneficial if AMD made a killer ARM CPU.

Would Samsung stop AMD from making graphic cards? Probably not, because it still brings in a profit and that's the whole reason they would buy AMD. Would they continue AMD's x86 chips? This is the grey area where I could see Samsung throwing it in the trash or using x86 to go against Intel. But this depends if Samsung wants to push the industry into ARM or use a hybrid ARM/X86. It could go either way with Samsung.
 
I could see Samdsung turning AMD around for the good. More resources for better research into GPUs and CPUs. Future x86 products could be more competitive and baked at their ow foundries.

AMD has been in the red for 3 years.
 
I'm skeptical this wouldn't get blocked from a monopoly standpoint. Barring that, Samsung might be the best thing to happen to amd.
 
I'm surprised at how few people know how bad Samsungs fiscal situation is. They are losing money hand over fist right now. Actually S Korea as a whole region isn't looking very good right now.
 
Ohhhh man, I hope this is true. Companies like Intel don't get in a real hurry to make massive performance increases without pressure to do so. It's more lucrative to string it out slowly, milking that cow as long as you can ( like cable ISPs without a challenger giving you a few more megabits every year when they could do a lot more ).

Samsung is huge, and could bring massive resources to AMD and make Intel sweat. AMD hasn't been more than mosquito buzzing in Intel's ear for a while now.

I hope it's true. Nvidia better pray this doesn't happen, I wouldn't be surprised to see Intel try to by them out
 
duby229 said:
I'm surprised at how few people know how bad Samsungs fiscal situation is. They are losing money hand over fist right now. Actually S Korea as a whole region isn't looking very good right now.
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Only certain divisions. Samsung Engineering is meh, Samsung mobile was bleeding money but that was on purpose by subsidizing Chinese phones to get a monopoly in that market, but Samsung has so many divisions that are still profitable.

And actually Samsung has so much cash reserves, that the S.Korean government has said that if they don't start investing and SPEND that money, that they will start taxing 10% annually on their cash reserves.

Of course their cash reserves aren't quite as bad as Apple, which has more money stashed away than the US treasury.
 
Oops, I lied, Samsung has more cash reserves now than Apple, I didn't realize that. Pretty ridiculous that the company has so much money, when the OBVIOUS investment of that money should be in its employees that make the company the money in the first place. That's how pirate ships worked... if you attacked a Spanish galleon and it was full of gold, you divided it up and the officers and captain would get a larger share, but you didn't have a total divorce where how much money coming in was irrelevant to how little the sailors were paid that are fixed income regardless of the profitability of the enterprise. And pirate ships were democracies in which bad captains could simply be voted off, and everyone had their little say in how things were run with real accountability in management (if a captain was REALLY REALLY incompetent, they might kill him instead of just vote him off).

Pretty broken as system, and sad that we really need to look at how pirates run things to make a more fair system!
 
Ducman69 said:
Pretty broken ass system, and sad that we really need to look at how pirates run things to make a more fair system!
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Except one small difference. Pirates stole from the unwilling through fear of death while Samsung and every other company hires wage (debt) slaves that willingly submit for fear of poverty, even if they're already in poverty. There is one easy fix to this broken system, too. Just stop, everyone just stand still and demand a more fair system, and yet we keep going, round and round.
 
someone is just trying to stir up some shit to boost AMD's stock price. This particular investor must have lost a good sum on the stock.
 
I actually think this could happen this time. Samsung has to spend cash, AMD is at a low price and has no fabs of it's own. Thats pretty much all win if your a ceo of Samsung, not only that but it's lets you into markets that you have not been part of before. Samsung also had the cash to put into more R&D for cpus and gpus. They also would gain AMD's arm technology as well along with server tech. They also could market AMD something AMD never had much luck with.
 
AMD has nothing to give in the mobile department. All their shit sucks.

They have a few low power chips that no one wants.
 
There were better and more convincing rumors in the past about Intel buying Nvidia.
 
Thisted story is bull. Either that, or Samsung are Munch more stupid than I already think they are...

1.) Samsung has no products that require discreet desktop GPUs
2.) AMD no longer has low power SOC technology that is suitable for Smartphones or Tablets, that tech was sold years ago
3.) AMD is not producing a custom ARM core for their so far failed ARM SOC design
4.) Samsung has no need of having it's own AMD64 desktop/server CPU

The only thing I could think of is that maybe Samsung would like to go into partnership with AMD to develop a low power mobile GPU. Samsung would provide cash and FABs, but the chips would be Samsungs, just like the XBox one, and PS4 chips.

Nothing else make sense.
 
If there was a basis for this it'd have to be for patents, I did a quick google search and found this : http://www.law360.com/articles/515848/amd-picks-patent-fight-with-lg-over-graphics-technology

The allegedly infringing products include LG televisions, smartphones, tablets, Blu-ray players, projectors and appliances that embody or practice the patented inventions.
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Those are all areas where Samsung would have a strong interest too, so maybe they feel owning that portfolio makes it easier for them to expand/profit in the US market.
 
Ducman69 said:
Only certain divisions. Samsung Engineering is meh, Samsung mobile was bleeding money but that was on purpose by subsidizing Chinese phones to get a monopoly in that market, but Samsung has so many divisions that are still profitable.

And actually Samsung has so much cash reserves, that the S.Korean government has said that if they don't start investing and SPEND that money, that they will start taxing 10% annually on their cash reserves.

Of course their cash reserves aren't quite as bad as Apple, which has more money stashed away than the US treasury.
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Wouldn't anyone with one red cent in their pocket have more money than the US treasury?
Joking aside, I think it makes sense for Samsung. It would expand their computing capabilities significantly. Fabbing silicone is not a problem for them. I don't know about the US, but I think ARM with good graphics chips can make an all-around substitution of x86 in other countries. Imagine you have a samsung cell phone (android or otherwise) and all in-one computer made of a Samsung monitor with a Samsung ARM chip (they best they can, without heat constrictions of mobile) with AMD's graphics and media tech, as well as gaming capacity, and a Samsung SSD..you can connect and synchronize data on your phone/tablet to your all in one wireless or otherwise. For the home/individual you really can substitute x86 all around. If its android-based there is already tons of software, its a matter of optimizing things for keyboard/mouse productivity.
 
Stimpy88 said:
Thisted story is bull. Either that, or Samsung are Munch more stupid than I already think they are...

1.) Samsung has no products that require discreet desktop GPUs
2.) AMD no longer has low power SOC technology that is suitable for Smartphones or Tablets, that tech was sold years ago
3.) AMD is not producing a custom ARM core for their so far failed ARM SOC design
4.) Samsung has no need of having it's own AMD64 desktop/server CPU

The only thing I could think of is that maybe Samsung would like to go into partnership with AMD to develop a low power mobile GPU. Samsung would provide cash and FABs, but the chips would be Samsungs, just like the XBox one, and PS4 chips.

Nothing else make sense.
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I agree if they are looking to cannibalize, do a destructive takeover, there is not much not cannibalize for mobile. X86 they cant even take, its non-transferable without Intel's approval AFAIK.
I think if they are looking to dump money into AMD they can really come up with very strong products.
Google's Android at this point is solid gold in my view.
Any company that manages to work closely with them ala Wintel and produce products for all around computing (desktop, TVs, Tablets, Cellphones, servers?, hell even car radios) could be a huge winner. Google will be an even bigger winner, since they will be pretty much everywhere, more so I mean.
I really can see ARM just hurting x86 really bad.
I been using my Rock-chip trident-gum box more and more (its now my living room 'desktop' since I hooked it to a monitor, a keyboard/mouse and Bluetooth speakers).
I mean this is a POS box and it does so much, runs so many apps with ease, even games that look fairly graphics intensive to me. Obviously Android must be an efficient OS. Must say I have jet to find a good 'Windows Explorer' file manager equivalent.
I mean if this shitty box seem to do so much, with so little, what could an octa-core or more, 8GB-16Gb ram, 128GB or more SSD, with ATI graphics enhanced ARM monster could do? I would assume, if Android is used there would need to be some corroborative work with Google to get this optimized.
 
Ducman69 said:
That there's too much consolidation, and by 2080 we'll probably have a world war of the two remaining corporate empires, Walmart vs Chevron who will own all brands on the planet.
Click to expand...

You really need to read the comic Hardboiled art by Geoff Darrow story by Sin City Frank Miller it's one of the best =)
 
Reasons Samsung may want AMD:
  • Chip design experience, which can be applied to Exynos
  • GPU design experience which can be applied to Exynos
  • Related IP.
  • AMD Already has ARM experience (albeit in the server field)

Things Samsung are likely NOT interested in in AMD's portfolio:
  • x86 CPU development (both client and server)
  • Discrete GPU development

This doesn't mean that they'd shut them down in a rumored takeover though. There is a lot of value in it, and to disregard it completely, would be a waste. Lets not forget that Samsung already has a presence in desktop hardware with their excellent SSD lineup.

If anything were to go, it would probably be the x86 CPU's, due to the difficulty in renegotiating a license from Intel in the event of a takeover. This would be bad for competition in the CPU market leaving Intel with the monopoly, but it's not as if AMD is putting up much of a fight today as it is anyway, so we'd probably barely notice. Intel already has the CPU market to do with as they please.

How can AMD's current offerings benefit from a Samsung takeover?

Well, it's no tightly held secret that AMD has been in a slow motion death spiral causing compound deficiencies in performance and competitiveness in their products generation after generation due to lack of funding to pursue top end R&D. New ownership IF they are willing to infuse capital into the market (which they may not be) could help here.

Samsung also owns some good small process node fab plants, which might be leveraged for some of AMD's products.


It is unclear what would happen with AMD's current lineup if enveloped by a company like Samsung. They may just decide to get out of the x86 CPU and discrete GPU markets all together, which would suck for us.

Truth is though, without a buyout by a bigger company with lots of resources AMD won't be around in 5-10 years anyway (due to the aforementioned slow motion death spiral), so a buyout has a better chance of salvaging at least SOMETHING.

I'd rather see them go to Google though. Google has more interest in the traditional PC market than Samsung does, and Google also notoriously has more money in cash than they know what to do with. (literally)
 
My ideal future phone is a tablet/laptop in phone form factor with cellular capability that runs full Windows x64 using modern interface for phone mode and desktop mode when docked to serve as a PC replacement to run all my productivity software. ARM will become second place in mobile when component miniaturization makes this possible that's why makes business sense for Samsung to combine their fab capability with AMD if they wish to remain dominant in the mobile space.
 
If Samsung bought up AMD Nvidia is as good as screwed

Samsung is the biggest chip fabricator on the planet (That I know of through media) and can cut out the middle man Global Foundries in a heartbeat, unless they or TSMC is willing to finally take a profit cut but TSMC has been rather pigheaded over the whole thing and been holding their AMD/NVidia contracts overr their heads for ages, AMD being sold to Samsung they could effectively cancel their TSMC contracts if the business gets new owners, and MIGHT make chips on the cheap then.

But considering how much TSMC has been gouging contracted partners unless Global Foundries takes a cut Samsung could destroy the high end CPU/GPU market

And the biggest thing about this is if Samsung buys AMD they also get access to the coveted and highly guarded x86 code rights, meaning Samsung could make phones that are x86 & x64 capable, and all without having to deal with Microsoft OR Intel
 
ShamisOMally said:
...meaning Samsung could make phones that are x86 & x64 capable, and all without having to deal with Microsoft OR Intel
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Lots of truth in this post, except for this last line.

There is no value in x86 on phones.

The only reason to make anything x86 is because legacy code runs on it. In fact, our desktops could be faster, AND use less power if we moved away from x86. Legacy compatibility is the only reason for x86.

Phones just aren't a good platform for existing x86 software to run on. At this point, a starting basis for ARM code already exists for just about everything, so might as well just forget about x86 on the phone side.

(now tablets - on the other hand - are different, and I'd love me one of those sweet Surface Pro's)

The ARM architecture has the clear advantage when it comes to performance/watt which really is all that matters on small battery driven devices.

The only reason Intel is even competitive in the SoC space with x86 chips is because their advantages in small process node manufacturing. At equal process nodes ARM absolutely destroys x86.
 
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