Posted on 10/15/2012 2:15:37 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Amazon, the world's largest online store, is reportedly negotiating to acquire Texas Instruments, a leading designer of custom chips for mobile and embedded markets. The move will help Amazon to better compete on the market of media tablets and possibly expand its hardware offerings in general.
Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist reported on Monday that Amazon is in advanced talks to buy Texas Instruments, the company that supplies OMAP system-on-chips for Kindle Fire media tablets. The report said any deal for the smartphone chip business of Texas Instruments Inc (TI) would probably be worth billions of dollars and could make Amazon a direct rival to Apple and Samsung Electronics, which also design their own chips, reports Reuters news-agency.
"With the trend towards more vertical integration, led by Apple, speculation that Amazon is interested in TI's chipset arm is unsurprising," said Ben Wood, head of research CCS Insight.
(Excerpt) Read more at xbitlabs.com ...
Semi-Accurate says AMD is imploding cause Management doesn't understand semiconductors.
I wonder what Amazon would do about the calculators?
TI makes good calculators.
I hate this news! TI is/was a great company with a lot of history. Started by a few people in oil exploration, Geophysical Services Incorporated (GSI). They needed instruments to further their success so they started TI so they could make their own electronic instruments. TI became very successful and eventually became the parent company.
Has Amazon ever made a profit? I know TI use to. Heck, they actually made things, too. Those were weird times, eh?; making things that you sold to make profits. Now you just sell hype, and profits are what traders make.
The title is misleading. Apparently, AMZN is only look at part of TI.
Amazon has made a profit every year since 2002. The last few years they've been around $1B/year in earnings before interest and taxes.
Yep, the chipset arm.
I controlled a $1.5 million budget right out of college to install their 1st local area networks and PC-based distributed computing infrastructure.
Oh how I loved the extreme technical prowess and responsibility / opportunity they gave to young people, but hated the management environment (>100 hr work weeks, vacillating plans, tiny incomes).
We had 5 divisions:
1) Semiconductor manufacturing
2) Defense
3) Metallurgy
4) Geophysical
5) Personal devices
I believe Amazon is the second biggest retailer in the world... and without a single brick and mortar store.
What is Amazon going to do with Raytheon and all the government contracts.
Amazon voluntarily acquired Texas (sales) taxes. That was enough for me to drop them.
They have a major warehouse in my state, we’ve been paying state taxes from nearly the beginning. I still use them frequently.
Yea, it was a business decision they made here - and likewise it was a business decision that I made. I can usually match their prices at other sites (sometimes beat them), but I still go there a lot for research.
How is Raytheon connected with this.?
Well, I say better a private company acquiring sales taxes than the state!
Given its excessive focus on the backside bus, Intel has decided to disassociate itself from the Boy Scouts and the traditions of normal.
Intel can take its “new normal” and shove it.
The trade rags also report that STmicroelectronics is interested in divesting of their digital business - which includes the types of processors like ARM SOC’s that would be involved in Kindle follow-on’s. It might actually be a better fit as ST also has significant software and design capabilities that could vault the Kindle into more sophisticated space.
Raytheon Purchases Defense Systems & Electronics Business of Texas Instruments January 6, 1997, 7:46 AM EST Acquisition Substantially Strengthens Raytheon's Leadership in Defense Electronics
LEXINGTON, Mass. and DALLAS, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) and Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) announced today that their boards of directors have approved a definitive agreement for Raytheon to purchase the assets of Texas Instruments' defense operations for $2.95 billion in cash.
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