Imagination preps for share listing
The IPO would allow Canyon Bridge, the Chinese-funded owner of Imaginaton Technologies to exit ownership, said the Financial Times, referencing unnamed sources.
A listing in Hong Kong or on another Chinese stock exchange has been ruled out leaving London or New York as the likely exchange.
The move would represent a remarkable re-alignment of a notable supplier of graphics processor cores that has expanded into machine learning accelerators.
Imagination was a public company and major supplier to Apple but when Apple announced a move away from using Imagination’s IP the share price collapsed forcing a sell off of the company in 2017 (see Apple dumping GPUs: Imagination in discussions ). Imagination was bought by China-backed private equity firm Canyon Bridge Capital Partners (see Imagination, MIPS to be sold to China-, California-connected VCs ) for about £550 million (about US$760 million).
Imagination subsequently renewed its deal with Apple (see Apple able to use more Imagination IP under renewed deal; How much did Apple pay to settle with Imagination?)
However, Imagination’s relationship with China Reform Fund Management, the state-owned fund that backs its private equity owner, came under scrutiny in 2020 when managers resigned over an attempt to appoint directors and a possible attempt to move the company’s headquarters to China (see Management threat stalls China’s Imagination coup).
The UK government sought to extract promises from Canyon Bridge that the company and its technology would not be substantially relocated to China.
Related links and articles:
Related articles:
- Imagination appoints ex-Arqiva exec as CEO
- Imagination sells its Ensigma WiFi6 business to Nordic Semi
- Imagination IP in Chinese AI integration
Other articles on eeNews Europe
- EU imposes anti-dumping duties on optical fibre cables from China
- MediaTek samples first 4nm ARM v9 chip for 320Mpixel smartphones
- The state of verification 2021
- Ford chip deal with GlobalFoundries shakes up automotive
- STMicroelectronics taps Intel in changes to leadership
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
