Latest Rumor Pegs Microsoft Wanting To Buy AMD

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Latest Rumor Pegs Microsoft Wanting To Buy AMD

Following the recent report that AMD is exploring splitting itself up or potentially selling off business units, there's now a rumor out there that Microsoft has set its sights on AMD...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...soft-Wants-AMD

[dungeon]

KitGuru will never get AMD card for review

[Pecisk]

Microsoft has been buying hardware companies recently, so this rumor doesn't sound that impossible. However, I expect if any sales happening, there will be parts of AMD sold, not whole company. It seems that shareholders are getting very itchy with mismanagement of AMD (which unfortunately is visible every day).

If Radeon part is bought by Microsoft it's pretty much game over for open source and most likely binary drivers too. They will just keep it alive for making next iterations of Xbox. For them having Linux support, especially after Steam Machine rollout, will be illogical.

If Microsoft buys only AMD core business and toss Radeon aside and it gets picked by someone else...good question who would want it to be. If I would be Valve I would look into buying Radeon part, because it would remove shackles of graphics cards vendors. For Valve it would make more sense as PC consoles are more about raw power, not convenience.

I think some sort of selling AMD off will happen. Company is in bad shape and they need to do something about it. I don't think Radeon will go to /dev/zero, but it will be very nervous months before air clears and we get full picture.

[carewolf]

I doubt it. Could be fun if they did though.

[blackout23]

I'd rather see Samsung buy them.

[alexliebensfeld]

As odd as it might sound, I would expect Intel to step in before AMD can be broken up or sold. They would probably rather assist their competitor in revitalizing their company rather than deal with the liabilities and legal issues that come with having a monopoly in the x86 market.

[Slartifartblast]

It's too much like an April Fool's joke to take seriously, certain anti-trust issues with the EU and others. A more credible suitor that has been thrown up is Qualcomm. Sounds like the work of a football agent planting news stories and talking up a player to jack the price up.

[user82]

Samsung, Microsoft, Qualcomm
can't decide on who would ruin it the most
If we are talking pure tech ruining it is Qualcomm
Samsung would ruin the software entirely
and MS would probablly keep stuff working but ruin the software for competitors

[eltomito]

This prospect sounds so horrible that it could be actually true At least the fact that there is a Microsoft proves there is no {G|g}od.

[valeriodean]

Samsung, Microsoft, Qualcomm
can't decide on who would ruin it the most

Then I prefer Samsung, they are already committed in open source (Tizen, Wayland, F2FS...) or, at least, more than the other two (admittedly it is not so difficult considering the other two competitors)