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Apple says graphics partner is lying about when they broke up

Apple says graphics partner is lying about when they broke up

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James Bareham / The Verge

Apple says that Imagination Technologies, a chip designer that’s currently blaming Apple for its collapse, is essentially lying about how long the company was aware that Apple’s business plans would leave it behind.

In a statement to Bloomberg this morning, Apple says it’s “disappointed in [Imagination’s] response, which has been inaccurate and misleading.”

Imagination says that Apple only informed it at the end of March, days before its April 3rd announcement, that the company would not be licensing its graphics chip designs for future iPhones.

Apple plans to design its own graphics chips

But Apple tells Bloomberg that isn’t the case. Apple says it began winding down its relationship with Imagination two years ago, first cutting out purchases of new technology and then reducing its royalty payments. In February, Apple says, it told Imagination their relationship would be over as of 2018.

The allegations are likely to trouble investors. Imagination pretty much relied on Apple, with the majority of its revenue coming from the division that licensed graphics chip designs out for use in iPhones. Without royalty payments on every iPhone — about $0.30 per phone — the company is worth dramatically less: its stock price was cut in half and has recovered little in the months since.

Imagination has now put itself up for sale, which seems to have investors a bit more encouraged.