PC processor maker AMD has announced it will acquire graphics and chipset specialist ATI Technologies for $5.4 billion, creating what AMD calls "a processing powerhouse" that will give PC and consumer electronics vendors more choices for both integrated platforms and high-performance discrete products. According to AMD chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz, "Bringing these two great companies together will allow us to transcend what we have accomplished as individual businesses and reinvent our industry as the technology leader and partner of choice."
In its official announcement, AMD said it "aims to move beyond current technological configurations" with "platforms that integrate microprocessors and graphics processors to address the growing need for general-purpose, media-centric, data-centric, and graphics-centric performance." A final centric will be "customer-centric platforms [for] customers who want to collaborate in the development of differentiated solutions," which the company plans to deliver in 2007. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. ATI president and chief executive officer Dave Orton will serve as executive vice president of an ATI business division, reporting to Ruiz and AMD president and chief operating officer Dirk Meyer.
