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Barron's, part of The Wall Street Journal digital network, reported a rumor this week that Dell may acquire AMD, the world's No. 2 maker of PC processors. The speculation that AMD might be up for grabs, whether by Dell or anyone else, initially pushed AMD's stock up 35 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $8.63. It's now trading at $8.75. So how likely is this to happen?
"There's not a lot of color on the rumor at this point," Barron's writes.
Trying to make heads or tails of it all, Bloomberg spoke with Patrick Wang, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, who noted that there's some "chatter" AMD is up for sale, however it's unlikely that will happen.
"There is no management team there," Wang said. Even still, "It's a far-fetched possibility."
This would be quite the turn of events. AMD once took issue with Dell for playing favorites with Intel, which was the result of specialty pricing from Chipzilla, and Intel eventually agreed to pay AMD $1.25 billion to settle antitrust charges. Dell went on to carry more AMD processors, and it's all apparently water under the bridge at this point.
Scooping up AMD, which is currently valued at about $6 billion, could put Dell in an awkard position, this time with Intel. It would be interesting to see how that would play out, but chances are, we'll never know.
Comments are closed on this article
Lipman42
February 17, 2011 at 11:56am
If Dell grabs AMD then there would only be new Catalyst driver updates every few months and then never an update for anything but the newest cards. I have a Dell Laptop 2 years old there was ony ONE video driver update when it first came out then never again. No video updates for 2 years.
Same would happen to my 2 new HD 6970s. No Way Man!!!!!!
misha573
February 17, 2011 at 5:05am
What!? Is it April already? This, even for a rumour, has to be a joke...a really bad one. Dell??? Seriously, if AMD stakeholders care anything about technology, this will not happen...not Dell, not any OEM "manufacturer." That would toss us right back to the stone age of the eighties...there will be no real innovation, just mediorce tech at exorbitant prices!
soldierblue211
February 16, 2011 at 7:22pm
I hate Dell/Alienware and curse the name! If this story were to turn out to be true I would... well i don't know what i would do. But, I would definitely have to extend a congratulations to Dell for once again neutering another well known name brand. 'cause we all know it would happen. as i write this on my $4000 netbook (over-heat discrete graphics card) thanks Dell!!!
R01010100
February 16, 2011 at 5:41pm
i don't see what all the fuss is about. both dell AND amd are absolute garbage. they deserve each other.
bpstone
February 16, 2011 at 10:37pm
@Caboose Agreed. @R01010100 How can you justify the overpriced processors Intel sells? $1050 for one cpu? That's another graphics card I can buy. I've bought both AMD and Intel products. Neither of which I've had issues with. AMD's new bulldozer chips will upgrade their outdated chips soon here anyway.
kiaghi7
February 16, 2011 at 3:29pm
As if AMD hasn't already killed ATi, taking their already infamously mediocre drivers and making them completely abysmal, now the monster that bought out ATi (AMD) is itself going to be consumed by an even more dubious entity like Dell...
That doesn't exactly bode well for the enthusiast market, i.e. the people who actually know what good parts and computers are as opposed to what dell would like to sell them for five times the market value and insist is an enthusiast level product.
Only time will tell perhaps, but one doesn't need a crystal ball to forsee that Dell would not do AMD/ATi any great favors from the perspective of the customer.
dc10ten
February 16, 2011 at 3:14pm
should AMD be bought out by someone. I would think a purchase from IBM would make sense (for the server market) and would a good point for them to re-enter the consumer front.
some special AMD sauce cooked with IBM cell processors... who knows the possibilities there. Dell would be taking too much of a risk with using AMD, so i doubt this would happen. Dell loves their intel processors...
ShyLinuxGuy
February 16, 2011 at 2:14pm
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
I hope it is what it is, a SPECULATION, and not a confirmed rumor. It would be TERRIBLE if Dell acquired AMD. Dell isn't synonymous with a quality product, and with mergers/takeovers, companies tend to muddle, and AMD would soon be turning out chips that burn out very quickly and video cards with bad caps. Plus, Dell might price their AMD-equipped PCs much lower than the competition and have people buying MORE and MORE Dells, while HP, Acer and others suffer from sales, due to the fact that Dell would be at a major advantage--they can acquire the chips at the lowest cost, since they own the very company that produces them.
Plus,should this happen, it might turn out to be what Oracle did to Sun--stripped all the branding and call the acquired company's assets their own, basically putting an end to the company they merged with. Imagine a Dell Phenom II processor? In an HP or other PC, no less???
Scootiep
February 16, 2011 at 12:41pm
Dear Jesus Christ God Jehovah Allah Buddah NO! I am going to close my eyes, put my hands over my ears and start screaming "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA!!!!" until someone puts this rumor to rest. AMD, DON'T YOU EVEN F'ING THINK ABOUT IT!
Neufeldt2002
February 16, 2011 at 11:29am
I have bought AMD chips for about the last ten years because of price to performance ratio. If Dell bought AMD I would have to spend more money to buy Intel chips as anything Dell touches turns to crap. I wonder if the rumor was started by Intel?
madmcfred
February 16, 2011 at 11:20am
wow if they buy AMD watch that take hands with alienware down the long ride down the drain. Dell is a big candle snuffer of a company.
da_samman
February 16, 2011 at 12:02pm
I feel I must agree. I have heard from many people who own an ALienware laptop, that after Dell got a hold of Alienware, quality control has taken a serious tumble, especially regarding overheating and customer service.
bling581
February 16, 2011 at 11:11am
I really hope Dell doesn't touch AMD because it would really suck!
someuid
February 16, 2011 at 10:42am
While I don't mind Dell, I'd rather AMD stay separate so they can continue to offset Intel and provide competition.
If AMD was sucked into Dell, Dell would concentrate on their battle with HP, Gateway (? are they still around) and others. They would take their eye off innovation and new technologies, and concentrate on following Intel's tech and trying to beat on price. That would be bad.
bpstone
February 16, 2011 at 10:31am
If Dell takes over AMD, I'll stop buying their products all-together because they won't be worth a damn anymore then. I hate Dell.
