Apple and Samsung in the Fray to Acquire Intel: Rumor

[lexluthermiester]

as large acquisitions have gone through before

It seems Lex might be messing with us. There is nothing stopping Intel from being acquired. Lex is just using insults to belittle our arguments while not providing any evidence that Intel is specially protected from acquisition. Lex just can’t fathom it.

Oh good grief. Yeah, that's it, I'm the one with the problem.

 

[mechtech]

What?!?!

I heard Musk was going to buy it.

 

[lexluthermiester]

What?!?!

I heard Musk was going to buy it.

THAT would be much more plausible and would not trigger the Antitrust regs.

 

[evelynharthbrooke]

THAT would be much more plausible and would not trigger the Antitrust regs.

Yeah, okay. Now you have to be trolling. There's no way on this earth Musk would be allowed to acquire Intel. That's literally insane.

 

[lexluthermiester]

There's no way on this earth Musk would be allowed to acquire Intel. That's literally insane.

No more, or less, insane than the vapid drivel on display by that daffy rumor. It's absolutely, pathetically stupid.

 

[eidairaman1]

It seems Lex might be messing with us. There is nothing stopping Intel from being acquired. Lex is just using insults to belittle our arguments while not providing any evidence that Intel is specially protected from acquisition. Lex just can’t fathom it.

There was a company called DEC that was just as big as Intel with similar products and services. DEC had over 140,000 employees at one time. It sold products to the US government including the military. It was bought by Compaq which was in turn bought by HP.

Acquisitions and mergers happen. It’s much easier for a US company to buy Intel but overseas companies can too. For example,

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2015/5/12/defense-contractor-reinvents-itself-to-operate-under-foreign-ownership

There are hurdles of course when big companies are acquired by foreign ones as shown by the above example. But it can happen. And by the way, that’s an example of a defense contractor in whole. Intel is only a defense contractor in part.

DEC, AMD was working with them, that is how the EV6 FSB architecture was used for the Socket A and Skocket 587 (DEC Alpha 21264) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_21264.

 

[btarunr]

This is all it is. The US government would never allow either purchase. It's absolute nonsense.

They let an obscure Chinese OEM buy out IBM's PC division (now Lenovo). They let Toshiba buy out Westinghouse Nuclear (holds a ton of nuclear power generation IP). They let Korean Hyundai Motors buy out Boston Dynamics (arguably the most advanced robotics company in the world). They let Lenovo buy out Motorola Mobility, they let GlobalFoundries go to UAE-based Mubdala, Seagate is owned by a Singaporean holding company, and heck, the Chicago Stock Exchange is owned by a Chinese PE firm.

There are just many examples of American companies of strategic value being bought out by foreign entities.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

No more, or less, insane than the vapid drivel on display by that daffy rumor. It's absolutely, pathetically stupid.

I think you'd get a lot less flack if you explained WHY its stupid, and why apple or samsung buying intel would trigger anti trust regulations. I looked back to page 1 and I dont see anything.

 

[R0H1T]

With Apple I could see a case given their massive stronghold on ARM based chips, which could in turn trigger such a move. With Samsung I don't see such an obvious risk unless it's that "national security" BS.

From throwing $50~60 billion on dividends & a few tens(?) of billions subsiding mobile chips to this, Intel's been an effin joke for at least a decade now!

 

[Pumper]

Why would Apple buy Intel for their outdated fabs, instead of just building their own brand new fabs for less money? No one is buying Intel, forget about it.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I think you'd get a lot less flack if you explained WHY its stupid, and why apple or samsung buying intel would trigger anti trust regulations. I looked back to page 1 and I dont see anything.

Fair point.

They let an obscure Chinese OEM buy out IBM's PC division (now Lenovo). They let Toshiba buy out Westinghouse Nuclear (holds a ton of nuclear power generation IP). They let Korean Hyundai Motors buy out Boston Dynamics (arguably the most advanced robotics company in the world). They let Lenovo buy out Motorola Mobility, they let GlobalFoundries go to UAE-based Mubdala, Seagate is owned by a Singaporean holding company, and heck, the Chicago Stock Exchange is owned by a Chinese PE firm.

There are just many examples of American companies of strategic value being bought out by foreign entities.

While those are good examples, those companies had to jump through a ton of hoops to get there. However, you may have missed the most important point, Antitrust.

There are far more subtleties to the idea of Intel being bought(by anyone). It just not going to happen without totally destroying the company itself.

So I'm going to go back to my original statement: This is a rumor and only a rumor.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Intel will NOT be sold....../end

 

[StimpsonJCat]

Intel will NOT be sold....../end

I tend to agree with you. Plus Intel is a failing company right now, has been for 10 years, and it's failing on just about every count. All they really offer a buyer is some last generation FAB tech, and a buttload of patents, and I don't know just how attractive most of that is to any other business, other than possibly Apple, but I doubt they want to build and maintain a FAB, although if TSMC keeps putting their prices up, it could actually be viable for Apple to manufacture their own chips, maybe...

And yes, I understand how mouthwatering Intel (especially their patents) would be to China, but I would fully expect a competent US gov would block such a sale.

 

[R0H1T]

All they really offer a buyer is some last generation FAB tech

They're good for, like, 90% of things not made out there on the bleeding edge of computing?

and a buttload of patents,

x86, believe it or not, is still the crown jewel of PC, & rightfully so!

and I don't know just how attractive most of that is to any other business, other than possibly Apple,

It isn't right now, nor would it be till Intel at least reaches parity with TSMC or surpasses them.

although if TSMC keeps putting their prices up, it could actually be viable for Apple to manufacture their own chips, maybe.

Nope Apple can only claim/get their lead because of TSMC ~ without them they're bust & so are their already questionable efficiency claims!

 

[Frick]

I haven't read all coments, but why on earth would Apple want to buy Intel?

Context is important. You're missing some. It's as simple as that. It'll never happen.

What context is that? Why wouldn't Apple be allowed to buy Intel?

 

[Daven]

They let an obscure Chinese OEM buy out IBM's PC division (now Lenovo). They let Toshiba buy out Westinghouse Nuclear (holds a ton of nuclear power generation IP). They let Korean Hyundai Motors buy out Boston Dynamics (arguably the most advanced robotics company in the world). They let Lenovo buy out Motorola Mobility, they let GlobalFoundries go to UAE-based Mubdala, Seagate is owned by a Singaporean holding company, and heck, the Chicago Stock Exchange is owned by a Chinese PE firm.

There are just many examples of American companies of strategic value being bought out by foreign entities.

Wow those are much better examples than the one I gave! Awesome post!

It’s interesting how the buying of Intel stirs such passions. From Lex insulting the hell out of us for even mentioning it to that other guy questioning the reputation of TPU.

But none of it matters. All publicly traded companies are up for sale and as someone who works for a company that just lost an acquisition due to a bidding war, the intentions to buy a company can be extreme and not always apparent if its a good idea at first. Time always tells

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

I don't know for Samsung, but Apple for sure has enough money to make the fabs to work

But why buy it in the first place? That just sounds like a good way for a lot of Apple money to go up in smoke. Apple already has dominance or self-reliance in every field that Intel could provide to a potential buyer except for the fabs themselves which are unfortunately behind schedule and uncompetitive vs TSMC. I suppose that Apple could use a 2nd option to buy from for geopolitical reasons but that money would be better spent on paying TSMC to make a dedicated US fab for Apple then. Or Apple could use another option just for cost and fab monopoly reasons but it would still be better off paying Samsung to fix their process for Apple chips instead of buying all of Intel just to get access to their fabs.

I mean, if the fabs were that attractive, Apple would just pay Intel now to get a 2nd option for chip production.

Samsung already has problems getting their new fabs up to speed vs TSMC, buying another uncompetitive set of fabs from Intel does not help their financial situation. And that's after you get past the whole overly simplistic "foreign company buying a US company is bad" attitude from both political parties.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Even if fabs are uncompetative, it's about cost to build and set up. At least Intel has them. What is the build and setup time, 5 years, more? and what about cost to build and set up, 1 billion, more. Imo it is much easier and cheaper to sort out fabs you have than build and set up from scratch. Intel might not be no.1 for CPUs but their fabs are making devices for some customers.
Has anyone actually asked Intel if they are selling? all this is speculation. As i said, imo Intel will not be sold.

 

[Assimilator]

They let an obscure Chinese OEM buy out IBM's PC division (now Lenovo). They let Toshiba buy out Westinghouse Nuclear (holds a ton of nuclear power generation IP). They let Korean Hyundai Motors buy out Boston Dynamics (arguably the most advanced robotics company in the world). They let Lenovo buy out Motorola Mobility, they let GlobalFoundries go to UAE-based Mubdala, Seagate is owned by a Singaporean holding company, and heck, the Chicago Stock Exchange is owned by a Chinese PE firm.

There are just many examples of American companies of strategic value being bought out by foreign entities.

Those sales were all before the Ukraine war started, which caused the US government to remember that allowing foreign companies to own your nation's core industries is a bad idea.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

This.
Every time I read something about someone acquiring Intel, especially those mobile-first companies, my heart stops for second, even though the latest intel proc I have is a 7th gen.

At some point, we'll have to reach the "f*** it!" stage. Can't be worse than contemporary Intel.

I'm reminded of the P4 era, Rambus era, their attempt to have extra cache on the mainboard, and other ideas where everyone declared them dead and they bounced back a few years later and then dominated everyone for longer than they were losing to before.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Now, why would Apple want to buy Intel? Apple uses their own CPUs now!

What I fear, is Arc becoming "the next Voodoo"! Like when Nvidia killed 3DFX!

 

[Daven]

Now, why would Apple want to buy Intel? Apple uses their own CPUs now!

What I fear, is Arc becoming "the next Voodoo"! Like when Nvidia killed 3DFX!

Why did Nvidia want to buy ARM when they can just license the tech for much less?

 

[evelynharthbrooke]

Fair point.


While those are good examples, those companies had to jump through a ton of hoops to get there. However, you may have missed the most important point, Antitrust.

There are far more subtleties to the idea of Intel being bought(by anyone). It just not going to happen without totally destroying the company itself.

So I'm going to go back to my original statement: This is a rumor and only a rumor.

Again: there are literally zero reasons why Apple acquring Intel would violate antitrust laws (even if Intel sells to the U.S. military) and unless you provide valid proof and evidence, your comments bear pretty much no fruit whatsoever.

 

[lexluthermiester]

whatsoever

Angry much? Whatever. It's ok, not everyone can get it.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Its funny why both Apple and Qualcomm would be interested in Intel when their ARM based SOC are doing well. I personally don't feel that they are after the foundry business because it is not really in a good state at this point. The acquirer will have to foot the hefty bills for the foundry business until they can somewhat turn it around.

Are you kidding? Think outside the box for a moment: we know only the very tip of the iceberg. The sheer amount of patents to a wide variety of technologies ranging from the embedded to the edge sector, from dial-up modems and other defunct technologies to the very latest in networking like infiniband, upcoming 6G and even beyond - computer graphics, application specific integrated circuits, semiconductor fabrication processes, etc. that Intel must hold makes whatever price they ask completely worth it, especially to a company as large as Apple. These are the same patents that make Intel so attractive to a company like Qcom - it's never been about the products themselves, but the trade secrets that make them possible