Will IBM save AMD's bacon?

Dom · Jul 17, 2003, 03:15 PM

EVER SINCE the announcement that IBM and AMD would be working together to develop new chip-making technologies at IBM's East Fishkill NY, speculation has been rampant that Big Blue might buy the struggling chip company.

One immediate benefit of such a move, of course, would be the silencing of the CPU lunatic fringe that continues to claim that AMD is secretly owned by Intel and that the company's moniker actually stands for "Another Microprocessor Division." We'll be reporting on these geniuses, and their latest attempt to prove the earth is actually flat later in the week.

At any rate, if you're on the AMD side of the equation there are a lot of things to like about a potential IBM acquisition. For starters, IBM has money. Lots of money. In fact, not only does IBM absolutely dwarf AMD's financial status, its gross profit and net income both surpass even Intel's by a substantial margin. Toss in IBM's advanced foundries, its research centers, and its proven track record when it comes to designing and implementing new processor technologies, and AMD would stand to benefit tremendously from the association. IBM's long reputation as a business partner to thousands of firms could put Opteron into server rooms in volume much quicker and less painfully than might otherwise be anticipated and aggressive measures by IBM to port their database software to the x86-64 platform could speed 64-bit adoption as well. Clearly there's tremendous potential benefit for AMD in such an acquisition—but what about for IBM?

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Jul 17, 2003, 03:15 PM	#1
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	Will IBM save AMD's bacon? EVER SINCE the announcement that IBM and AMD would be working together to develop new chip-making technologies at IBM's East Fishkill NY, speculation has been rampant that Big Blue might buy the struggling chip company. One immediate benefit of such a move, of course, would be the silencing of the CPU lunatic fringe that continues to claim that AMD is secretly owned by Intel and that the company's moniker actually stands for "Another Microprocessor Division." We'll be reporting on these geniuses, and their latest attempt to prove the earth is actually flat later in the week. At any rate, if you're on the AMD side of the equation there are a lot of things to like about a potential IBM acquisition. For starters, IBM has money. Lots of money. In fact, not only does IBM absolutely dwarf AMD's financial status, its gross profit and net income both surpass even Intel's by a substantial margin. Toss in IBM's advanced foundries, its research centers, and its proven track record when it comes to designing and implementing new processor technologies, and AMD would stand to benefit tremendously from the association. IBM's long reputation as a business partner to thousands of firms could put Opteron into server rooms in volume much quicker and less painfully than might otherwise be anticipated and aggressive measures by IBM to port their database software to the x86-64 platform could speed 64-bit adoption as well. Clearly there's tremendous potential benefit for AMD in such an acquisition—but what about for IBM? Read More...