Microsoft Interested In Buying AMD?

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Oh look, it's the Microsoft wants to buy AMD rumor again. While a deal like this would make sense for Microsoft, this is the millionth time we've heard this from a "source familiar with the matter" so take this with a large grain of salt.

In a bid to revive its chip design operations, Microsoft Corp. may acquire Advanced Micro Devices, according to a source familiar with the matter. The software giant approached AMD several months ago, the source indicated. The result of the talks is unclear.
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If this rumor became true, I would be so happy for AMD/ATI but sad for Microsoft as I am not sure they are capable of waging so many different wars on so many fronts.
 
On the one hand it would make sense since they could control the chips for their devices, but there is no way they would want to go head to head with Intel. I am sure they look at it from time to time, but there is no way they would pull the trigger.
 
It wouldn't surprise me but I'm not sure how that would go over with others. I mean they could buy AMD for the change they find in their couch cushions. However I'm not sure how Intel or ARM would react. Also OEM's might not like the idea since it could be seen as Microsoft trying to emulate apple and bring everything in house.

That all being said, outside of the tinkers (everybody on this board), having a standardized windows platform isn't a bad idea. I'm just afraid the custom computer industry might dry up or become just an ultra expensive niche. I hope I'm wrong though and this is just clickbait.
 
Only Apple could do that and avoid anti-trust lawsuits. Microsoft already has too much in house.
 
I honestly don't care. As long as it put competition back into the GPU market and especially the CPU market vs intel..

Their new Fury X didn't live up to the hype. 300 series is rebranded crap... and their CPU line up are just refresh after refresh after refresh after after refresh after after refresh....

I used to support ATI up until after the HD5000 series gpu's... now amd just pisses me off with the way they're doing things.
 
So it seems everybody wants to buy AMD.

I mean qualcomm, apple, MS, Samsung, Xilinx.and lets throw nvida and Intel while we are at it. Oh and Global Foundries, because... why not.
 
Talyrius said:
I don't buy this—even for a second.
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Pretty much. I mean:

1. This would make them go head to head with Intel, which isn't really an advantageous thing for them since they're in the OS business and have decades-long business relationships with them?

2. Wouldn't something like that get the DOJ sniffing their way again with anti-trust inquiries?
 
Stoly said:
So it seems everybody wants to buy AMD.

I mean qualcomm, apple, MS, Samsung, Xilinx.and lets throw nvida and Intel while we are at it. Oh and Global Foundries, because... why not.
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let the bidding wars begin!:cool:
 
I doubt this is going to happen but if it did I would expect it would make the Linux folks happy as I am sure that Intel would strengthen ties with Linux (the only alternative to Windows) if MS were to move into the hardware side of the business ... it could also open the door for Apple to do something that they have never seemed interested in (release their OSX for the PC environment) ... but I will not hold my breath waiting for MS to do something like this (seems like more of a pipe dream) :)
 
kbrickley said:
I doubt this is going to happen but if it did I would expect it would make the Linux folks happy as I am sure that Intel would strengthen ties with Linux (the only alternative to Windows) if MS were to move into the hardware side of the business ... it could also open the door for Apple to do something that they have never seemed interested in (release their OSX for the PC environment) ... but I will not hold my breath waiting for MS to do something like this (seems like more of a pipe dream) :)
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Yeah no this would have no impact on Linux. Unless gaming companies (and i mean devs not hardware) starting supporting linux in a huge manor there is no way Nvidia gives up where at least 95% of its business comes from, which is windows
 
tetris42 said:
Pretty much. I mean:

2. Wouldn't something like that get the DOJ sniffing their way again with anti-trust inquiries?
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After what, the go nowhere hoopla with Microsoft in the 90's. That was big drama with no real result as intended. Anti-trust has been a joke for the last 25 years.
 
Lol...AMD has been in far worse shape than at present and survived...Who the heck is "Dino PC"...? Heck...I can see it now...Dino PC says..."Microsoft is going to buy AMD"...then..."Intel is going to buy Microsoft" or "AMD is going to buy Microsoft & Intel"....and "Blackberry is buying Apple"...the possibilities are endless!

"Where did you hear it?" asks the little man with the long, green beard.

"The voices in my head, man," answers Dino PC. "The same voices gave me our company motto: 'Extinct for 60 million years!'...groovy, eh?"
 
So it seems everybody wants to buy AMD.
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Their current stock is valued at 1.83 billion dollars. Although not like anyone would / could just buy all stock at the current price.
 
i cant see this happening, but if it did it would be great for amd. the company that designs the software would be making the hardware for it to run on. there would be so much amd optimization in windows and dx. could you imagine microsoft designing dx13 hardware years before it was ever announced?
 
jpm100 said:
After what, the go nowhere hoopla with Microsoft in the 90's. That was big drama with no real result as intended. Anti-trust has been a joke for the last 25 years.
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It mostly has, but then again it's lingering enough that we didn't see a T-Mobile or TWC buyout either.
 
This does not make sense, especially with MS shedding the Ad and maps business in the last couple of days. From what I can tell MS is trying to become more agile (if a giant tanker of a company can be). I expect MS will be shedding some more weight as well.

As far as ATI/AMD, we consumers NEED them to survive. Nvidia and Intel need competition... i just wish they were able to bring it or at least be honest in their project releases.
 
T_A said:
sounds about as likely as 'intel to buy nvidia'
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if any gpu mfg was able to use intels fabs that would be a huge advantage. they would have at worst 22nm gpus out (for a while now), with 14nm ones about to launch.
 
XeenSD said:
This does not make sense, especially with MS shedding the Ad and maps business in the last couple of days. From what I can tell MS is trying to become more agile (if a giant tanker of a company can be). I expect MS will be shedding some more weight as well.

As far as ATI/AMD, we consumers NEED them to survive. Nvidia and Intel need competition... i just wish they were able to bring it or at least be honest in their project releases.
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The problem is that they lack the funding. They are loosing money, and there is no public demand for their products. Sure we may "need" them. but if I was buying a new video card I would get something from nVidia, and I say this as a long standing AMD guy. There stuff is power hungry slow. Those are not great selling points.
 
actually it might work for microsoft in another way. microsoft buys amd. amd makes chips for sony playstation and nintendo. oops no more chips for nintendo and sony's next consoles.
 
Well, there's this pesky little detail that would get in the way of anyone purchasing AMD. They'll have to get Intel's permission (by way of an updated agreement with the purchasing company) or AMD's right to make x86 devices goes *poof*.
 
tetris42 said:
Pretty much. I mean:

1. This would make them go head to head with Intel, which isn't really an advantageous thing for them since they're in the OS business and have decades-long business relationships with them?

2. Wouldn't something like that get the DOJ sniffing their way again with anti-trust inquiries?
Click to expand...

I would agree with you, if it was 2005, and not 2015.
MS has absolutely nothing to fear from Intel.
I think it would be Intel shitting bricks if this fantasy was to happen.
Everything x86 have become simple, out of the box garbage, specs do not mean much of a crap anymore, no one outside 'enthusiasts' cares 2 shits anymore.
ARM is even more of this, I don't even think any co-worker of mine know what ARM is, they probably think its all Apple, and if its Samsung, it might be a copy of Apple or something.
AMD is the only x86, ARM, and graphics house around (other than Intel, which it too big to buy I guess)
Yes it would make sense for MS, they could screw the entire console environment for the next round, forcing sony to go Intel/Nvidia if sony is still alive.
MS could have a lot of product development with AMD, that is for sure.
No need for speed crowns anymore, that crap is mostly a thing of the past.
Intel is nothing without MS, that is a certainty too, so MS really has nothing to worry.. Intel will only kiss MS's feet is this was to happen, that is all.
 
Parja said:
Well, there's this pesky little detail that would get in the way of anyone purchasing AMD. They'll have to get Intel's permission (by way of an updated agreement with the purchasing company) or AMD's right to make x86 devices goes *poof*.
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Well, it isn't to Intel's advantage for AMD to die so I doubt they would get too hardline unless the buyer were a major threat ... certainly Intel would veto a purchase by ARM, Qualcomm, or companies who are major threats to Intel in other markets ... I actually don't think that Intel would view the purchase by MS as that much of a threat since MS linking their OS to a single hardware solution would be very unpopular in the Enterprise market ... also, AMD is probably far enough behind Intel in research that they don't feel as threatened by AMD right now
 
Parja said:
Well, there's this pesky little detail that would get in the way of anyone purchasing AMD. They'll have to get Intel's permission (by way of an updated agreement with the purchasing company) or AMD's right to make x86 devices goes *poof*.
Click to expand...

That's true, but one has to wonder, would that still be valid if a company get majority stake, and start seeding employees under AMD's, then of course.. suddenly AMD gets contracts to produce things for the stakeholder, you know magically.
I mean insurance company do the shell game all time, its all legal.. to the point where State Farm was 'lending' money to a subsidiary or affiliate (not sure) at high interests, in this manner (via the interest) they where siphoning off the money from my state out to rest of the company.. while keeping the 'affiliated company' borderline broke, because in case of a problem, the company would go under, the state would shoulder the loss.
Yeah, they did get 'caught' nothing illegal.. the regulator just had the affiliate/daughter company close or whatever (license remove or whatnot, "stern words" were said)
 
I wonder if Kitguru is still pissed off about AMD not giving them free hardware? :D
 
drescherjm said:
Their current stock is valued at 1.83 billion dollars. Although not like anyone would / could just buy all stock at the current price.
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So, Notch could buy them, and have a few million left over to live off of. :D
 
Parja said:
Well, there's this pesky little detail that would get in the way of anyone purchasing AMD. They'll have to get Intel's permission (by way of an updated agreement with the purchasing company) or AMD's right to make x86 devices goes *poof*.
Click to expand...

Doesn't this also go the other way: doesn't AMD more or less own the x86-64 (AMD64 or x86_64 depending on who you ask)? If so, wouldn't that give AMD some leverage in the event that Intel started being pricky about someone like Microsoft buying AMD?
 
Yeah dont see this happening. Why would they risk their relationship with Intel?
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Doesn't this also go the other way: doesn't AMD more or less own the x86-64 (AMD64 or x86_64 depending on who you ask)? If so, wouldn't that give AMD some leverage in the event that Intel started being pricky about someone like Microsoft buying AMD?
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If I understand it correctly, and I could definitely be wrong, X64 is an extension to the X86 instruction set. So Intel would still own the base instruction set. Not sure, but seems logical anyway.

Either way I don't really see MS doing this. I could see benefits from it in some ways, but plenty of disadvantages as well.

One good thing if MS and Intel weren't direct partners anymore (and this is in fairy-land-of-make-believe mind you) we would NEVER have to here someone utter the "word" Wintel again!!! :D
 
J3RK said:
If I understand it correctly, and I could definitely be wrong, X64 is an extension to the X86 instruction set. So Intel would still own the base instruction set. Not sure, but seems logical anyway.

Either way I don't really see MS doing this. I could see benefits from it in some ways, but plenty of disadvantages as well.

One good thing if MS and Intel weren't direct partners anymore (and this is in fairy-land-of-make-believe mind you) we would NEVER have to here someone utter the "word" Wintel again!!! :D
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Typo: typed here instead of hear. (I hate that!!!)
 
MS has the deep pockets to buy AMD and compete with Intel. Hell they could build their own fabs instead of having to outsource to Global and TSMC.
 
XeenSD said:
As far as ATI/AMD, we consumers NEED them to survive. Nvidia and Intel need competition... i just wish they were able to bring it or at least be honest in their project releases.
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I used to think that, but it seems like AMD just can´t compete in either cpu or gpu.

Both nvidia and intel feel more threathened by the likes of qualcomm, apple and samsung.

I feel that if AMD goes down someone else will rise and take its place.
 
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