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Analysts predict an AMD Xilinx merger

by on10 June 2015


Fighting off Intel in tandem

Now that Intel and Altera have tied the knot, speculation is rife that AMD is going to merge with Xilinx.


The speculation appears to have come from Steve Casselman, the CEO of Reconfigurable Computing but since then others have started to also think it is a good idea.

Thing is that onces Chipzilla has its claws into the Altera product line, it will be able to cheaply produce the chip and drop the price, drastically undercutting Xilinx.

Xilinx can't get any help from AMD in dealing with this problem, since AMD is fabless, but it would open up the opportunity for Xilinx to have an x86 and FPGA option. AMD's server position is pretty pants these days but it would give Xilinz a way in.

What is more likely to interest Xilinz is AMD's GPUs where it still has some relevance at least in the short term.

Gus Richard, formerly with Piper Jaffray and now with Northland Capital Markets feels AMD is a takeover target and Xilinx is a suitable buyer.

"Investors have decided that AMD has hit the iceberg and they are waiting for the ship to sink," he said, he told Barron's. "However, we believe that AMD still has time to avoid the collision, and if all else fails investors will be bailed out by the lifeboat of M&A."

Xilinx could use AMD as a server/data centre play. Again, that overlooks AMD's pitiful position in the data centre, but even that could change with Zen.

Richard thought it possible that the Chinese could buy AMD, which is unlikely because Intel holds a license agreement with AMD on x86 patents which can't be shared with a Chinese company. Intel and the DoJ would scream blue murder.

Last modified on 10 June 2015
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