14 DAY TRIAL // Nvidia has just finalized the acquisition of physics processing card manufacturer Ageia and seems to get ready for yet another merger that will change the IT industry forever. Technology analyst Doug Fredman has estimated that Nvidia is secretly gearing up in order to buy its competitor AMD. Although the scenario might seem like a bad dream for the industry, it actually makes sense.
The situation has been outlined by many more tech analysts than Fredman. They have reached the conclusion that Nvidia chief Jen-Hsun Huang would make a great CEO for Advanced Micro Devices than its actual chairman, Hector Ruiz. This is simply because Ruiz and his suite have compromised the company's credibility as far as Wall Street analysts and the company's customers are concerned. AMD has done nothing but delay its important products; when they reached the market, they would come as immature and unstable products.
On the other side of the fence, back into Nvidia's courtyard, Huang is regarded like a man that keeps his promise. Nvidia is a company that promotes newer technologies and, at the same time, it mercilessly engulfs competition (for instance, the 3dfx is a good example). The new CEO could perform miracles with the ATI technology, such as morphing them for processor direct access. According to Fredman, a joint corporation born from the Nvidia-AMD merger would mean a fatal blow directed at Intel.
Of course, AMD would not be expected to surrender for a faint price, given the fact that it currently has a $3.7 billion market cap and $3.1 billion in net debt. Nvidia can only cover $1.85 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet, but it has a clean debt slate. Moreover, Nvidia can draw good credit rates and valuable stock, that would pave the road to a part-stock, part-debt acquisition.
The most important obstacle in the merger may be the EU and US regulators, that won't be quite content with ATI and Nvidia joining under the same logo, given the fact that this would lead to a monopoly in the high-end graphics industry.
Although Nvidia seems to be the best thing that could happen to AMD, the chip manufacturer would rather get a proposal from IBM, as rumored some time ago. This is rather likely to happen because IBM has extended resources and deeper roots in jointly developing of technology with Advanced Micro Devices.