Imagination Technologies Share Discussion Threads

[jamesrowe] 10/7/2017 13:18

Are you allowed to purchase a company if you have previously told them that you will stop licensing their IP thus spooking investors & potential bidders and causing a dispute with managment about whether your technology infringes their patents? (tricky one if you just say that futuere technology will not require a license!).

Does setting up a neighbouring office, and advertising for specialst staff who may only be available in the area at the company that you are in dispute with, constitute poaching of staff? Given that this would affect the price and saleability of the company doesd this have any implications for whether you are allowed to purchase the company at a knock-down price?

[sheep_herder] 10/7/2017 13:18

That article is a bit sensationalist. They've been planning a move to that area for ages, not only to recruit IMG staff but also to try and woo ARM CBG staff who wouldn't commute to central London and then Battersea.

The implication that Apple have set up this office after announcing the end of their agreement with IMG is just purely wrong. All the good staff were poached long ago anyway.

[richardc77] 10/7/2017 13:13

Sadly I doubt Apple care at all what anyone thinks, that is always the case with such behemoths.

[jamesrowe] 10/7/2017 13:08

Anyone who was prepared to give the company the benefit of the doubt over whether their behaviour has been unethical will now surely change their view....

[rob_evans] 10/7/2017 12:23

I think this in completely unacceptable - there is only one reason for Apple to setup their office next to IMG, and that's to poach their best engineers. With Apple's cachet and deep pockets they will be able to attract whoever they want to work with them.

Without their top engineers IMG do not have a viable company to sell.

This move by Apple destroys any hope of a decent bid, and Apple really should be ashamed for this cynical and unacceptable behaviour in my view.




Apple sets up new UK office on Imagination's doorstep amid chip row

Apple has raised the stakes in its bitter stand-off with Imagination Technologies by opening an office on the British microchip company’s doorstep.

The Silicon Valley giant has planted its flag by renting a 22,500 square-foot office in St Albans, a stone’s throw from Imagination’s headquarters. It plans to use the office to develop its own graphics technology as it ditches Imagination, leading to fears that it will poach the British company’s most talented staff.

The development is set to heighten tensions between the companies, exacerbating fears that Apple is seeking a quasi-takeover of its supplier by hiring its employees and weakening the company’s hand as the two tussle over Apple’s plans to ditch the company.

Imagination, once a star of the UK tech scene, was thrown into turmoil in April when it emerged that Apple plans to stop using the Imagination graphics technology that powers the iPhone.

Apple accounts for half of the London-listed company’s revenues and without further payments Imagination will struggle to survive. Its shares slumped by 62pc when the news emerged, and the company put itself up for sale last month.

The two are now locked in a public war of words over the matter. Imagination has challenged Apple’s claim that it will be able to develop its own technology without infringing on Imagination’s technology, and is pressing for it to continue paying royalties. Last week its chief executive Andrew Heath branded Apple unethical and claimed the episode had unsettled staff.

Apple has denied that it has pulled the rug out from under Imagination, saying the company has known for years that it is winding down the relationship. It has labelled the company’s conduct “inaccurate and misleading”.

Apple has hired a string of Imagination employees in recent months including its former chief operating officer John Metcalfe, who have been placed staff at the iPhone giant’s main UK office in London or in California. More than a dozen further job postings on Apple’s website for experts in graphics hardware now advertise for roles in South Hertfordshire.

The new office in the centre of St Albans sits a few miles from Imagination’s base in the adjacent Hertfordshire village of Kings Langley. Apple is preparing to open a new UK headquarters at the former site of Battersea Power Station, but it will not be open until 2021.

Imagination’s technology forms the basis of the graphics chip that feature in every iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch but Apple is seeking to design its own as it takes greater control over the components in its devices. Powerful graphics units are central to fast-growing technologies like virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence.

Mr Heath said last week that Apple will continue to need access to at least some of its patented technologies given its long reliance on them, saying claims that the US company will be able to go it alone are “unsubstantiated”.

Apple says Imagination has had two years’ notice that the relationship will be wound down, disputing Imagination’s claims. “We valued our past relationship and wanted to give them as much notice as possible to adapt their future plans. We’re disappointed in their response, which has been inaccurate and misleading,” a spokesman said.

Analysts say Imagination is not a viable business without royalties from Apple. Potential bidders for the company include Intel, Qualcomm and ARM Holdings.
-End-

[bukko] 10/7/2017 11:16

TW
My post27892

[orkney] 10/7/2017 11:10

hxxp://www.4-traders.com/IMAGINATION-TECHNOLOGIES-4000947/news/Imagination-Technologies-New-Apple-office-stone-s-throw-from-Imagination-Technologies-24723658/

[twatcher] 10/7/2017 10:15

Given that they haven't reported yet, it appears to me that the chinese company that dropped to under 3% prior to the formal sale, has subsequently also disposed of the rest of the holding prior to the sale, which at the time would not have been notifiable.

[borromini1] 09/7/2017 15:48

So IMG's statement that Apple's assertion "in order to control it's products" which could refer to timing or content has been subsequently clarified by Apple as "we need unique and differentiating IP for our products". Apple think an IMG PowerVR architecture licence does not provide the scope or exclusivity for their future market share ambitions. After so many years collaboration it is hard to imagine that IMG have not been doing anything Apple requested on the development side. It seems that Apple think they are effectively contributing to and funding IMG to such an extent that the resultant IMG core IP should not, and is too important to, be actively marketed to their competitors, whether in the mid or high end and even though Qualcomm Adreno has the current mobile market share ascendancy if not technical GPU superiority.
Apple also seem to have maintained the position that buying IMG with a view to curtailing others' access to know how and IP is too prolonged and messy a proposition for their liking. As has been clear to some longer than others, for a long time Apple has been taking a dual strategy approach of building a distributed parallel in house GPU team by siting offices next door to existing GPU talent pools to recruit know how on a speculative or as required basis. Apple obviously reached their tipping point, switched priority to in house GPU design and are working through the consequences.

Apple - you may have valued the past relationship, you may want to be nice to IMG. You must be clear on your IP use for Apple IP only GPU product to be released in June 2018, what would it take to clarify how you won't need IMG IP if that is the case?

[pottsey] 09/7/2017 09:34

It looks like Qualcomm are saying Apple are infringing patents. It looks to me like its the GPU bits that Apple self-designed over using IMG IP. Not all of it is GPU infringing but 8,633,936 looks to be one of the GPU areas Apple stopped using IMG for and self-designed.

[bukko] 08/7/2017 21:12

I wonder if Apple is indulging in a little revisionist spin in their statement to Bloomsberg. There are a number of reasons they might choose to continue with what they disparagingly refer to as "old technology" (eg. 7XP). The main ones being if the "old" with some tweaks/ process node change still outperformed the competition and would be cheaper than going with the latest available.

[someuwin] 08/7/2017 20:33

The Times...

[borromini1] 08/7/2017 12:16

Not confused about it being an extension, citing the obfuscation in using the term multi-year in respect to backward use or forward use of future IP in an RNS statement that investors may have relied on since Feb 2014 as well as your later example in 27989. The ongoing implications of that 2014 RNS were not publicly changed until the RNS of April 2017.

[rob_evans] 08/7/2017 11:47

borrowmini1 - I think you are confused. The announcement on Feb 2014 was for an EXTENSION of an existing license agreement, not a new multi-year license agreement.

[borromini1] 08/7/2017 10:47

If Apple stopped accepting new IP from IMG in 2015 then the multi-year licencing agreement with Apple announced on 4 Feb 2014 did NOT even make it to TWO years.

IMG RNS dated 4 Feb 2014 - Imagination Technologies extends its multi-year licensing agreement with Apple

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”) announces that Apple has extended its multi-year, multi-use license agreement, which gives Apple access to Imagination’s wide range of current and future PowerVR graphics and video IP cores.

Under the terms of the above licensing arrangement, Imagination will receive on-going license fees, and royalty revenues on shipment of SoCs (Systems on Chip) incorporating Imagination’s IP.

Ref Torygraph article of 6 Feb 2014 ...

[rob_evans] 07/7/2017 19:37

"We had some discussions with Imagination"

Well they certainly did, but not the sort of discussion most here thought!

Any shareholder who bought IMG after 09/02/16 when Apple told IMG that they "expected to wind down our licensing agreement", and then lost out when IMG finally dropped the Apple bombshell on 03/04/17, might well be feeling that there should have been an earlier announcement.

[primitive] 07/7/2017 19:17

Worth recalling Apple's statement March 2016:'From time to time, Apple talks with companies about potential acquisitions. We had some discussions with Imagination, but we do not plan to make an offer for the company at this time.'So, no offer was made. Of course, that's not to say Heath & Co didn't do their best to get an Apple offer at that time. All imho.

[orkney] 07/7/2017 18:45

If Apple stopped accepting new IP from img in 2015, then why did they make an offer to buy img in 2016?

[rob_evans] 07/7/2017 18:06

AppleInsider are reporting the Apple statement issued to Bloomberg -


"We began working with Imagination in 2007 and stopped accepting new IP from them in 2015. After lengthy discussions we advised them on February 9 that we expected to wind down our licensing agreement since we need unique and differentiating IP for our products," Apple told Bloomberg. "We valued our past relationship and wanted to give them as much notice as possible to adapt their future plans."

SHY resigned as CEO on 8th February.

[richardc77] 07/7/2017 16:27

Considering news that Herald offloaded 1.1m shares the share price held up well today. Let's see what next week brings...

[taffy100] 07/7/2017 15:57

Home Android Top Phones With MediaTek Helio X30 Overview and Specifications

[timbob2000] 07/7/2017 15:08

I have to say I think what Apple is saying appears to ring true. This would certainly explain the delay in announcing 8XT. It was supposed to be announced in January 2016 but never happened, what we got was the announcement of 8XE only. Apples A10/A10X SoC update was pretty mild with a fair to good performance increase on the GPU side under certain benchmarks, though by no means an across the board performance increase that most expected... Again this revelation would I think now explain why. Plus we had that article released a while back which presented the idea that Apple's GPU was using allot less of Imaginations IP than many assumed. Of course until IMG care to comment on Apples assertions we may never know for sure.

[twatcher] 07/7/2017 15:07

Its for people that support the view that endless drivel is a bad thing.

[dins1249] 07/7/2017 14:55

It is for people who have something INTELLIGENT to say

[mallorca 9] 07/7/2017 14:41

So this board is just for people who support your view !