Imagination Technologies Share Discussion Threads

[pottsey] 11/5/2017 08:50

I thought I better explained my thinking in my above post. My train of thought was that if IMG choose not to fight with Apple at court or settle before going to court like they are trying to then IMG will last well over 5 years.

Even if IMG sell MIPS and the other sections for less than they paid they should still get enough to pay off all debts. This then leaves them with 2 years of zero debt and profits to build up a cash pile, no rent as the building is owned. So 2 years in they can then live for another 3+ years on that cash pile that’s been built up. As outgoings will be drastically lower then now in 5+ years even if they still haven’t gained market share they can then sell the building and survived for more years. So IMG have 5+ years to regain enough market share to survive and that can be extended by going into debt.

[pottsey] 11/5/2017 08:32

“Bet it's quite an incredible product. I wonder if they'll still be around to collect the royalties.“
They should be as long as no one buys them out. IMG should be in profit for the next 2 years and even after that point they still get money from Apple from selling legacy products. A lot of people seemed to have missed IMG should still be getting money from Apple for many years to come. It’s not expected to suddenly drop to zero after 2 years, it’s going reduce a lot but not go to zero that could take 4+ years. This is even assuming Apple can pull off a homebuilt GPU without having AMD, NVidia and everyone else going after them. Samsung tried the same as Apple, spent as much money as Apple and failed on a home grown GPU after years of trying. Apple have a large uphill battle ahead. (EDIT: To be clear Samsung didn't fail on building a GPU they ran into patent related problems the same ones Apple are going to face)

It looks like IMG are winning back the low and mid end market which should put them back in profit without Apple. Once all the loss making sections are sold off IMG should be debt free, in profit and have a cash pile to fall back on. Without MIPS, Pure and all the other sections draining cash IMG can live for years to come. Yes income is due to drastically fall but so are outgoings. It’s always hard to estimate but I believe IMG have over 5 years to regain market share before they run into major problems.

EDIT: Someone really needs to fix these voting bots or bug or what ever it is that automatically votes posts up and down.

[sheep_herder] 10/5/2017 20:12

Bet it's quite an incredible product. I wonder if they'll still be around to collect the royalties.

[luckymouse] 10/5/2017 14:54

Looks like its being held there whilst folks are unwinding

free stock charts from uk.advfn.com

[orkney] 09/5/2017 18:39

I wonder how Tsinghua plan to spend a fraction of this $22 billion:

hxxp://www.datacenterdynamics.com/content-tracks/design-build/china-grants-unigroup-22bn-to-boost-semiconductor-sector/98081.fullarticle

[pottsey] 06/5/2017 13:24

Its not expected that Apples GPU's will make any savings. The money they save by not paying IMG wont go very far in creating a GPU. Apparently the reason they did it is to have more control not to save money.

[orkney] 05/5/2017 17:02

Perhaps Apple need to make savings to maintain their cash mountain. Their automobile project must be eating up $Billions. Only a thought, although with $250 or so billion reserves it seems unlikely.

[jamesrowe] 05/5/2017 16:53

and bigger ones like Qualcomm!!

[rob_evans] 05/5/2017 15:54

Apple can do anything they want - at the moment they are telling app developers that their apps need to be converted to run in 64 bit mode for future versions of iOS.

So any IMG specific function can just be designed out, and it will be up to app developers to comply.

Apple are a ruthless company - there are many smaller companies that have found that out the hard way.

[pottsey] 05/5/2017 15:44

I do wonder how Apple are going to get around both the patent and app problem. A large amount of apps use tech that belongs to us like PVRTC2 that cannot be run on Apples own GPU. This and other features are going to either mean a large app rewrite or suddenly a large amount of apps are not going to work. Will Apple really bring out a phone that cannot run a large amount of apps?

Samsung tried the same as Apple but gave up as they ran into patent problems making there own GPU.

It wouldnt surpise me if everything but PowerVR is sold so Apple can buy just the bit they want to. (please note I have no insider information and don’t want to start rumours. just saying I wouldn’t be surprised if IMG is stripped down to PowerVR only and sold)

[srsm] 05/5/2017 13:16

scha·den·freu·de
ˈSHädə;nˌfroidə/
noun

pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.


iPhone 8 Delayed to 2018. "some sort of augmented reality features"
hxxps://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/2/15518898/apple-iphone-8-rumor-delay-2018-oled-manufacturing-7s-deutsche-bank

Not sure if our royalties are tied only to iPhone 7 and that 8 is when Apple GUI takes over. Anyone know?

Am I the only one hoping Apple really screw up? I know it is unlikely, they must be super confident. But... fingers crossed. Does that make be a bad person?

[borromini1] 05/5/2017 11:20

Bloomberg reports Qualcomm said to seek US import ban for iPhones.

Stick It to the Man Qualcomm.

[borromini1] 05/5/2017 10:44

Analyst Call audio from yesterday morning has been posted

[jamesrowe] 04/5/2017 16:46

==== The End ====


(Well almost)

[theyak] 04/5/2017 11:07

Surprised to see the share price holding up after todays announcement, nearly it for me, just a few left.
Sadly it's looking like a slow drawn out death.
THEYAK

[twatcher] 04/5/2017 10:20

The amount of money squandered by this company over the apple years is frankly, staggering.

So now PURE, basically a radio manufacturer that they seemingly couldn't shovel money quickly enough into from Apple, is joined by MIPS, a $60M acquisition that turned into a $100M acqusition, that I never liked from day 1, and Ensigma, a group that over the years must have cost $100M+, given it was only being flagged to approach breakeven shortly. And yet we were told that IMG couldn't compete at the low end of graphics because they couldn't make money out of it ?, really ?, at least they would have been building the core business up and putting all those $100Ms into the graphics.

It has become apparent that since that 1 decision some 15 years ago to focus on mobile graphics, just about every single major strategic decision this company made was an awful one. The scattergun approach of R&D, dressed up as crystal ball gazing, is now plain to see.

Upper management didn't have a clue, and the new boys are having to deal with the consequences.

Today's announcement says the decision has been made due to the Apple announcement. That tells you 1) how blindsided IMG were to the apple announcement, 2) regardless of IMG's bluster in their initial response, they are massively downsizing in expectation/fear of having a massive reduction in income.

It is pertinent to note that it was announced las week that Apple is stopping ALL royalty payments to Qualcomm, until their current dispute is resolved, and Qualcomm dropped their quaterly forecast by $500M as a result


It's a different scenario, in that Apple is saying the royalaties to Qualcomm are too high, whereas Apple has indicated to IMG that they won't be using IMG IP and hence won't need to pay anything in around 18 months. So that should not impinge on their committments to pay royalities in the meantime. However, should it play out that Apple decide to take a similar approach now that IMG have instigated the dispute resolution process.......

I'm not a holder, but as someone who has followed the company closely for 25+ years, it's desperately disappointing to see it all go pear shaped, and have the upper management's ineptitudes revealed for what they were, when the public facing story was so different.

[rob_evans] 04/5/2017 09:57

Well no surprise there - Apple refusing to play ball, and IMG forced to sell MIPS & Ensigma.

They're going to be left with PowerVR, with very few customers.

What a sad end to what could, and should, have been a great British company.

[sheep_herder] 04/5/2017 09:45

Well, at least the board are moving faster than I thought, "I would think that they'll have to announce something within 6-8 weeks after the Apple RNS. The only risk to a short I can see is a sale of MIPS which might temporarily inject some hope before people realise the death spiral continues.".

[countryboy] 04/5/2017 09:25

Takeover more or less likely with dispute resolution underway?