Imagination Technologies Share Discussion Threads

[cd27idw] 19/9/2023 10:42

Possible new IPO - anyone want to go there again?

[goodgrief] 18/11/2021 12:56

Was it just 4 years ago? Seems like a lifetime!

[someuwin] 17/11/2021 22:42

Chip maker Imagination Technologies plots stock market comeback four years after it was taken private

[snaffleclamp] 29/6/2020 17:50

Imagination Technologies sued over £27m Russian SoC contract invoice brouhaha

[srsm] 19/6/2020 10:07

Tech takeovers feed into China Cold War fears


IMG in the news. Should have been in the news these days for breaking into the
FTSE100. Or similar successes.

Apple built a global titan in part due to IMG PowerVR making their new smartphone a practical proposition. And then knifed them - to no ones benefit.

The New Tech Cold War will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 11:00 on Friday and again on Tuesday at 16:00. BBCRadio4

[srsm] 11/6/2020 19:34

I'll plump for Apple as chief morons.

But IMG should have been profitable enough to survive without Apple.

After all, on the spirit of 'Intel Inside' inferring that a PC/Laptop is just a box for an Intel CPU I think it can be argued that a smartphone is just a box for a power sipping 2D, 3D and Video processor. Plus some other bits of course. And IMG had the best tech for that plus Ensigma etc.

So pretty much the most important IP for the most ubiquitous and critical consumer technology ever made where punters barely care about the price... and replace them every 24 months... and still IMG couldn't make a decent profit.

Bizarre.

I wonder if they'll 'unsell' themselves from the Chinese owners. How'd that work?

[life of crime] 11/6/2020 13:58

To answer your question SRSM, I think the biggest morons were the UK govt for allowing the deal to go through. However, at the time Theresa May was distracted by Brexit and was sucking up to China in the style of Cameron/Osbourne.

The second biggest morons were Apple for not buying IMG when they could have had the whole shooting party, i.e. Pure, MIPS, Ensigma etc, for peanuts and sold or kept whatever they wanted.

I would not classify the shareholders as morons (I had already sold up by then) because the firm was on the way out at that point and the Chinese had the only offer on the table. Otherwise the liquidators could have been called in and it would have been a fire-sale where the shareholders got nothing. The way things are going today they could have asked the govt for a bailout in exchange for some equity!

However, it was funny to see Apple crawling to them when their backstabbing misfired! Perhaps now they will stop trying to recruit GPU engineers from IMG's HQ to their R&D lab down the road at St Albans.

P.S. I am sure IMG will be a lot more cautious about sharing their IP roadmap with Apple in future!

[srsm] 09/6/2020 18:37

Anyone hazard a guess at to what Apple were up to when they ditched IMG?

They thought they could do better themselves. And pinched a lot of the top IMG Engineers to help them do it.

And now with the new licence they've presumably realised they aren't up to it. Lots of rock solid IMG patents?

Wouldn't it have made more sense for Apple just to buy IMG. Loose change for them.

Now we've got this Chinese ownership shambles. Could make life difficult for IMG with tech in cars etc owned by the Chinese state! Risky.

I can't work out who's more moronic. UK share owners for selling to the Chinese. UK Govt for allowing it to happen. Or Apple for causing the sale in the first place.


And I wonder what the terms of the Licence deal are? If I was still an IMG shareholder I would have liked to have seen substantial increases in the terms. Apple are obviously desperate. But I suspect sappy/weak UK managers will have been strong armed into taking cuts to royalties - so desperate to have Apple on board again. Cynic that I am.


This country needs an industrial strategy and better managers for companies. IMG should have been as big as ARM.

[snaffleclamp] 23/4/2020 18:03

Imagination Technologies – the British Chipmaker – Is Now Aiming for a Relisting on Public Markets Following Backlash Against Its Chinese Backers

[rob_evans] 14/4/2020 20:36

From

MPs summon China-owned firm execs over security concerns
By Simon Jack
Business editor
14 April 2020

A leading UK-based firm will be summoned on Tuesday by MPs to answer questions over security concerns.

There are concerns that the Chinese owner of Imagination Technologies has renewed efforts to transfer ownership of sensitive security software to companies controlled by China.

Lawmakers worry the coronavirus crisis is diverting attention from controversial technology transfers.

The fear is that networks in the UK, Europe and the US could be compromised.

Speaking to the BBC, Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said he was concerned that technology developed by Imagination Technologies, based in Hertfordshire, could be used to fine tune the design of so-called "backdoors" into strategically important digital infrastructure.

"The world has changed and companies - particularly tech companies - are on the frontline," said Mr Tugendhat.

"Whoever writes the code, writes the rules for the world, more than any regulation passed by bureaucrats. There's no point in taking back control from Brussels, only to hand it over to Beijing."

Imagination Technologies was acquired by a US-based but Chinese state-owned investment firm called Canyon Bridge in September 2017, which is in turn owned by a Chinese state-owned investment fund called China Reform.

Mr Tugendhat said Theresa May's government approved the acquisition on the basis that Canyon Bridge was licensed and regulated by US law.

Since then it has moved its headquarters to the Cayman Islands and as such is no longer a US-controlled entity.

Several senior executives, including chief executive Ron Black, have stepped down recently citing concerns about the future direction and ownership of the company.

Chief product officer Steve Evans and chief technical officer John Rayfield also resigned recently.

Mr Evans is understood to have said in his resignation letter: "I will not be part of a company that is effectively controlled by the Chinese government."

An attempt by China Reform to stage a boardroom coup ten days ago by appointing four of its own directors were aborted, but the call for evidence comes amid renewed concerns that the Chinese owners of Imagination are preparing a fresh attempt to transfer sensitive technology patents to mainland China.

Huawei executives were quizzed by MPs about whether China would have the ability to snoop on UK mobile network communications in April 2019

As well as designing graphics and virtual reality software for computer chips, industry experts say that Imagination also produces software which can detect whether any weaknesses in sensitive digital networks - so-called "backdoors" are the result of error or intention.

The UK has already approved the limited use of Chinese-owned Huawei equipment in the construction of new superfast 5G networks that promise to deliver better connectivity for use in autonomous cars, utilities, power stations, the national health service and many others.

There is no suggestion that Huawei is directly connected to Imagination, or its ultimate owners - the state-owned China Reform investment fund.

The call for evidence comes a day after EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager warned that companies across the EU - many of which have been or are being pushed the brink of bankruptcy by the economic effects of Coronavirus - are vulnerable to takeover from Chinese companies.

In the UK, the Treasury is considering plans for the state to take ownership stakes in thousands of businesses, to prevent mass bankruptcies of businesses unable or unwilling to take on extra debt.

The situation is delicate as many EU countries are gratefully accepting donations of virus-fighting equipment from China. The country, which appears to be "first in - first out", is now emerging from a crisis from which it bore the initial brunt.

Neither Imagination Technologies, nor its owner China Reform returned the BBC's request for comment.
-Ends-

[rob_evans] 06/4/2020 09:35

Imagination and Apple Sign New Agreement

London, UK; 2nd January 2020 – Imagination Technologies (“Imagination”) announces that it has replaced the multi-year, multi-use license agreement with Apple, first announced on February 6, 2014, with a new multi-year license agreement under which Apple has access to a wider range of Imagination’s intellectual property in exchange for license fees.

[fse] 26/4/2018 21:04

Anyone on ADVFN still have shares in this company. They have recently initiated a share buy back offer... any views or am I in the cupboard by myself ?

[freddie ferret] 07/3/2018 16:50

Were you a copper in another life?

[swiftnick] 07/3/2018 14:16

Interview with David Harold:

[nedhammers1] 19/2/2018 07:52

Anyone there?

[nedhammers1] 14/2/2018 04:51

Great find, interestingly they are still pursuing Apple for compensation. Can someone remind me if as previous shareholders we would. E entitled any portion of a potential settlement?

[kamitora] 10/2/2018 20:52

Imagination Technologies may need further cash from new owners

[nedhammers1] 07/2/2018 16:36

?? Pillow?

[pillow] 06/2/2018 04:31

Bloodbath, major shareholders dumped all stock yesterday

[nedhammers1] 05/2/2018 07:21

Seems that any potential compensation etc.is just not going to happen. I suspect the company are now looking to the future