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    After dispute with Apple, chip maker Imagination Technologies puts itself up for sale

    After dispute with Apple, chip maker Imagination Technologies puts itself up for sale

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    No bruised apples here

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    Imagination Technologies, former chip designer for Apple, has announced today that it’s selling the entire company, initiating a formal sale process.

    Its stock price is climbing rapidly following the news — the first positive growth it’s seen since Imagination’s fall out with Apple in April. The British-based company said in a press release that several parties had expressed interest in buying them over the past few weeks but “there can be no certainty that any offer will be made for Imagination.” 

    This all comes just two months after Apple announced it would begin making graphics chip designs in house and cut off its reliance on Imagination within two years. This news dropped Imagination’s stock price to half of where it had been before. In response to the end of its relationship with Apple, which was responsible for a significant portion of Imagination’s revenue, Imagination planned to sell off two of its businesses and begin a formal dispute with Apple over its graphic patents because informal talks weren’t getting them anywhere. Apple making graphics chips in house would infringe on Imagination’s patents, the latter maintained, but Apple wouldn’t agree to licensing some of their graphic patents. The initial plan to sell two businesses has grown to include the entire company, in light of rapidly dropping financial numbers.

    “there can be no certainty”

    Imagination wrote in April: “Apple has not presented any evidence to substantiate its assertion that it will no longer require Imagination’s technology, without violating Imagination’s patents, intellectual property, and confidential information,” even if Apple said otherwise. Despite the sale, Imagination says it remains in dispute with Apple.