Intel Increases Its Stake in Imagination Technologies

As it prepares itself for the inevitable launch of the first product based on the much-hyped Larrabee chip, Santa Clara, California-based Intel further strengthens its stake in Imagination Technologies, increasing it by an additional 25 million shares. The world's leading chip maker now owns 13.99 percent of the British chip designer's total issued voting rights, or 32 million shares of the company. Following the announcement about Intel’s move, Imagination Technologies's shares went up 12.7 pcts.

“Intel Corporation has already licensed several generations of Imagination Technologies Group plc's graphics and video IP cores for deployment in Intel's PC, mobile computing and consumer architectures. Intel Corporation values its continued relationship with Imagination Technologies Group plc and the use of Imagination's technologies by an industry-wide customer base,” the chip maker said in a statement with the London Stock Exchange.

According to Intel, the investment made through its wholly owned subsidiary, Intel Capital Corp., the world's leading chip maker has no plans of acquiring the British chip designer, although it has purchased various intellectual properties from the company. Intel's recent acquisition makes it the second biggest shareholder at Imagination Technologies, behind Saudi Arabia's Saad Group, according to Bloomberg data. This adds to Intel's previously acquired 3 percent of Imagination.

Imagination is a designer of video chips for digital radios, media players, mobile phones and navigation devices. Its customer base includes major industry players such as Texas Instruments, Samsung Electronics and Sharp Electronics. Aside from Intel, Apple is also among the shareholders at Imagination, with a 3.6 stake the computer vendor acquired back in December 2008.

Intel's interest in Imagination is associated with the company's target to enter the market of graphics chips, competing with established players like NVIDIA and AMD. On that note, it is planning the launch of its first discrete graphics chip, codenamed Calpella.