AMD completes ATI acquisition

Three months after the $5.4bn acquisition was first announced, the deal is finally closed

AMD has completed its acquisition of graphics card giant ATI Technologies, creating a united powerhouse with approximately 15,000 employees.

Under the terms of the deal, first revealed in July, processor giant AMD acquired ATI for approximately $4.3bn cash and 58 million shares of AMD common stock, bringing the total to around $5.4bn.

Hector Ruiz, chief executive of AMD said: “Today marks a historic day for our employees, our partners and our customers as we officially welcome ATI into the AMD family.”

“On day one, we are delivering a winning set of complementary technologies, igniting a new level of innovation and continuing to champion choice for the industry. Thanks to the strength of our talented employees, the new AMD now has a full range of intellectual property in microprocessors, graphics, chipsets and consumer electronics to deliver open platforms and integrated solutions. In the near term, customers gain a new level of choice, and in the long term, we believe the possibilities for innovation are truly limitless,” he added.

The vendor claimed end-users should benefit from AMD’s and ATI’s combined platform development and technical support teams, which will be co-located in Taipei and Shanghai. Combined with the existing Austin and Toronto locations, these sites offer research and development and support to provide end-users with a complete solution for optimised platform development.

AMD plans to deliver a range of integrated platforms in 2007 to serve key markets, including: commercial clients; mobile computing; and gaming and media computing. PC users will benefit from innovations intended to extend battery life on the next-generation AMD Turion 64 mobile technology-based platform and enhancements to the AMD LIVE! digital media PC platform.

AMD claimed that these integrated platform developments will bring improved system stability, better time-to-market, increased performance and energy-efficiency and overall, an enhanced user experience.