British semiconductor and software design company
Imagination Technologies Group Limited
|
Company type
| Private
|
---|
Industry
| Technology
|
---|
Founded
| 1985
; 39 years ago
(
1985
)
|
---|
Founder
| Tony Maclaren
|
---|
Headquarters
| Kings Langley
, England, UK
|
---|
Area served
| Worldwide
|
---|
Key people
| Simon Beresford-Wylie (CEO)
Michael Trzupek (CFO)
Brent Blanchard (CRO)
Nick Merry (CHRO)
|
---|
Products
| Graphics processing unit
(GPU) designs
|
---|
Revenue
| £
120.0 million (2016)
[1]
|
---|
| £
(61.5) million (2016)
[1]
|
---|
| £
(80.6) million (2016)
[1]
|
---|
Owner
| Canyon Bridge Capital Partners
|
---|
Number of employees
| c.
500
(2020)
[2]
|
---|
Divisions
| PowerVR
|
---|
Website
| www
.imaginationtech
.com
|
---|
Imagination Technologies Limited
is a British
semiconductor
and
software
design company owned by Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, a
private equity fund
based in
Beijing
that is ultimately owned by the Chinese government. With its global headquarters in
Kings Langley
, England, its primary business is in the design of
PowerVR
mobile
graphics processors
(GPUs), neural network accelerators for AI processing, and networking routers. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Canyon Bridge in November 2017.
History
[
edit
]
The company was founded in 1985 by Tony Maclaren, and subsequently led by him as group chief executive, as
VideoLogic
[3]
and originally focused on
graphics
, sound
acceleration
, home
audio systems
, video-capture and
video-conferencing
systems.
[4]
It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in July 1994.
[5]
The following year it entered into a licensing agreement over its PowerVR technology with
NEC
(now
Renesas
) who took a 2.29% stake in the company for £1.6 million and acquired the rights to manufacture and sell the chip.
[6]
On 2 December 1997, NEC subscribed 2.3 million (1.5%) new shares at a price of 56.5p, taking its total stake to 3.5%.
[7]
In 1999, the company refocused on intellectual property
licensing
generally and changed its name to
Imagination Technologies
.
[4]
Hossein Yassaie
, who joined the company in 1992, became the company's
Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) in 1998. On 29 December 2012, Yassaie was awarded a knighthood in the
2013 New Year Honours
. The award was given in recognition of his services to technology and innovation.
[8]
Since the 1990s, VideoLogic has provided chips for
digital television
set-top boxes
.
[9]
On 23 March 2000, Imagination Technologies acquired Ensigma, a private company specialising in digital signal processing, for a maximum consideration of £5 million. On 26 September 2001, Imagination Technologies acquired Cross Products Limited, a company designing and producing development tools for
META
DSP
IP cores and Renesas's
SuperH
architecture processors under CodeScape brand, for £4.2 million.
[10]
In October 2006,
Intel Corporation
acquired a 2.9% stake in Imagination Technologies for £5.28 million.
[11]
On 24 November 2008, Imagination Technologies announced a license agreement it signed with a new partner, then undisclosed, for a high-performance version of its PowerVR SGX graphics processor chip: this was later revealed to be
Apple Inc
.
[12]
In December 2008, Apple Inc purchased a 3.6% stake in the company for £3.2 million.
[12]
In June 2009, it was announced that Intel's stake had increased to 14% after it had acquired 25 million shares.
[13]
One week later, Intel acquired another 5 million shares from the Saad Group (based in
Saudi Arabia
), and its shareholding rose to 16.02%.
[14]
Days later, Apple Inc announced it had subscribed for 2.2m new shares at 142.75p each and made market purchases of another 11.52 million shares, raising its stake to 9.5%;
[15]
Saad Group, who had held 44.6 million shares i.e. 20.3% of the company as at 30 June 2008, was thought to be the vendor of these shares, and had been reportedly forced to divest after its bank froze its accounts.
[16]
On 17 November 2010, Imagination Technologies announced its intention to acquire HelloSoft, one of the world's leading providers of Video and Voice over Internet Protocol and wireless LAN technologies, for a maximum consideration of $47 million.
[17]
On 14 December 2010, Imagination Technologies acquired Caustic Graphics, developer of hardware/software real-time
ray-tracing
graphics technology which was founded by a group of former Apple engineers, for $27 million.
[18]
On 14 December 2011, Imagination Technologies announced that it had signed a licensing agreement with
Qualcomm
. The company signed an agreement for the display IP from its PowerVR portfolio.
[19]
On 3 January 2012, Imagination Technologies announced that it will invest totalling £5 million, in Toumaz Microsystems, a
wireless intercom
spinout of Toumaz Ltd., and will own 25% of the business.
[20]
In June 2012, Imagination Technologies acquired Nethra Imaging, a semiconductor and systems company focused on delivering video and imaging solutions.
[21]
As of November 2012, over 1 billion
SOC
units had shipped containing cores developed by Imagination Technologies.
[22]
On 17 December 2012, Imagination Technologies beat
Ceva Inc
in the race to buy processor technology firm
MIPS Technologies
with a knockout offer of $100 million.
[23]
On 8 February 2016, Imagination Technologies announced that Sir Hossein Yassaie had stepped down from the company after 18 years as CEO.
[24]
Imagination Technologies had seen over 40 per cent of its market value lost in the past few months, and over 85 per cent since it peaked in 2012, due to its dependence on Apple which had seen slowing iPhone sales.
[25]
Andrew Heath, a member of Imagination's board of directors and former director of Rolls-Royce, was appointed as interim chief executive before taking the role on a permanent basis on 26 May 2016.
[24]
Additionally, Imagination announced a restructuring program to cut costs by £15m in the next financial year, and announced its intention to sell its Pure digital radio division.
[24]
In March 2016, Apple considered buying Imagination Technologies but never made a formal offer. From 2015 to 2017, despite retaining the licensing agreement, Apple engineered a "
brain drain
" of Imagination Technologies's personnel, including engineers and executives. Apple also established a new office for chip development in St Albans, close to Imagination Technologies' headquarters.
[26]
On 3 April 2017, Imagination Technologies' stock prices fell by 70% after it reported that Apple planned to stop using its intellectual property within its system-on-chips within the next two years. Apple accounted at the time for more than half of the company's revenue.
[27]
The following month, Imagination Technologies announced that it would enter into a dispute resolution process seeking that Apple license its intellectual property, arguing that 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". The company also announced that it would sell its MIPS and Ensigma businesses.
[28]
[29]
Imagination Technologies sold MIPS processor rights to
Tallwood MIPS Inc
in 2017.
[30]
MIPS Technologies was acquired by
Wave Computing
in 2018, where "MIPS operates as an IP licensing business unit".
[31]
[32]
On 15 May 2017, Sondrel announced it had signed an agreement to acquire the IMG Works division.
[33]
On 22 June 2017, Imagination Technologies'
board of directors
announced it was putting the entire company up for sale
[34]
and, on 25 September 2017, they announced that the company was being acquired by
Canyon Bridge
, a private equity fund ultimately owned by the Chinese government.
[35]
[36]
In November 2017 the sale to Canyon Bridge was approved in a transaction which valued the business at £550 million (£1.82 per share).
[37]
[38]
Since the sale to Canyon Bridge, there have been security concerns over possible technology transfers to Chinese
state-owned enterprises
, leading to key executives of Imagination being summoned to appear before the
Foreign Affairs Select Committee
of the British parliament.
[39]
Once the sale was complete CEO Andrew Heath and CFO Guy Millward both departed. The CEO position was taken over by Leo Li; Li was replaced in turn by Ron Black in December 2018.
[40]
On 2 January 2020, Imagination Technologies announced a new multi-year license agreement with
Apple
including access to a wider range of Imagination's
IP
in exchange for license fees. This deal replaced the prior deal signed on 6 February 2014.
[41]
On 5 October 2020, Imagination Technologies announced
Simon Beresford-Wylie
as its new chief executive officer.
[42]
On 30 November 2020, Imagination Technologies announced the sale of its Ensigma Wi-Fi development operations and Wi-Fi IP tech assets to
Nordic Semiconductor
.
[43]
On 8 January 2021, Imagination announced revenues of $125 million for 2020, an increase of 44% on 2019.
[44]
On 11 January 2023, Glassdoor listed Imagination as the 16th best place to work in the UK.
[45]
Products
[
edit
]
Imagination Technologies' main focus is the development of GPU architectures. The architectures are then used by other firms for graphical processors such as the Fantasy series from Innosilicon or by
Moore Threads
.
[46]
The 2023 released IMG DXD GPU IP also support various graphic APIs like
DirectX
11 and
Vulkan
1.3 as well as Ray Tracing and is aimed at
cloud gaming services
.
[47]
[48]
The 2019 released A-Series is meant to address a wider range of uses, like in
AIoT
devices or servers due to being scalable from 1 PPC to 2
TFLOPS
.
[49]
Their IPs are also used in cars,
[50]
and were used in the iPhone from 2007 to 2017.
[51]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Annual Report 2016"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2 December 2017
. Retrieved
3 April
2017
.
- ^
Williams-Grut, Oscar (2 January 2020).
"Apple strikes deal with UK chipmaker two years after snub"
.
Yahoo! Finance
.
- ^
"Videologic"
. Chennelweb. 10 December 1997
. Retrieved
14 January
2017
.
- ^
a
b
Analyst Report
9 July 2008
- ^
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Archived
29 June 2009 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
NEC Announces Investment in VideoLogic; Companies Sign Joint Development and License Agreement on Advanced 3D Games and Virtual Reality Technology
Business Wire, 27 March 1995
- ^
NEC ups Videologic stake, Computer Business Review, 2 December 1997
- ^
"The New Year Honours Lists 2013"
.
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. 29 December 2012
. Retrieved
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2014
.
- ^
"The Investment Column: Imagination Technologies"
.
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. 10 November 1999
. Retrieved
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2015
.
- ^
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. Investegate.co.uk
. Retrieved
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2013
.
- ^
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.
Register Hardware
. 2 October 2006.
- ^
a
b
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.
itproportal.com
.
- ^
"Intel boosts stake to 14%"
.
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. 18 June 2009.
- ^
Fletcher, Nick (23 June 2009).
"Intel raises stake in UK chip group Imagination"
.
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- ^
Fletcher, Nick (June 2009).
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.
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. Retrieved
5 May
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.
- ^
Marshall, Rosalie (26 June 2009).
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.
V3.co.uk
.
- ^
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Stockopedia, 17 November 2010
- ^
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Vizworld, 14 December 2010
- ^
Sylvie Barak, EE Times. "
Qualcomm becomes Imagination Technologies licensee
." 14 December 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
- ^
Imagination Technologies buys into Toumaz
Tech Eye, 3 January 2012
- ^
"From UK-Analyst.com: Thursday 13 September 2012"
. UK-Analyst.com
. Retrieved
12 January
2013
.
- ^
"Over 1 billion units shipped by Imagination partners"
.
Imagination Technologies
. 12 November 2012
. Retrieved
18 November
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.
- ^
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. Associated Press. 17 December 2012. Archived from
the original
on 22 December 2012
. Retrieved
18 December
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Pure radio up for sale as Imagination Technologies' boss departs"
.
BBC News
. 8 February 2016
. Retrieved
8 February
2016
.
- ^
"Imagination Technologies share price drops as chief executive Sir Hossein Yassaie leaves and chip maker sells Pure | City A.M"
. City A.M. 8 February 2016
. Retrieved
13 March
2018
.
- ^
Kif Leswing 13 Oct. 2016, 10:46 AM 9,740 (13 October 2016).
"Apple poaches Imagination Technologies COO"
. Business Insider
. Retrieved
13 March
2018
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
"Imagination Technologies' shares plunge after Apple ends contract"
.
BBC News
. 3 April 2017
. Retrieved
5 April
2017
.
- ^
"iPhone graphics supplier to sell off businesses amid patent battle with Apple"
.
The Verge
. 4 May 2017
. Retrieved
5 May
2017
.
- ^
"Imagination to Double-Down on GPU Business, MIPS and Ensigma to Be Sold"
.
Anandtech
. Retrieved
5 May
2017
.
- ^
"Completion of sale of MIPS - Imagination"
. 25 October 2017.
- ^
"Wave Computing and MIPS Technologies Reach Agreement to Exit Bankruptcy"
(Press release).
- ^
"About – MIPS"
. Retrieved
6 November
2019
.
- ^
"Sondrel Agrees to Acquire IMG Works Division of Imagination Technologies"
. Retrieved
23 May
2017
.
- ^
Smith, Ryan (22 June 2017).
"Imagination Technologies Formally Puts Itself Up for Sale"
. Anandtech
. Retrieved
22 June
2017
.
- ^
"Brit chip design company Imagination Tech sold to China-linked private equity"
. The Register. 25 September 2017
. Retrieved
1 October
2017
.
- ^
"The Acquisition of Imagination Technologies"
.
Datenna
. Retrieved
10 October
2020
.
- ^
Fildes, Nic (4 November 2017),
"Imagination Technologies deal ends run as UK's bright spark"
,
ft.com
- ^
Martin, Ben (2 November 2017),
"Canyon Bridge bid for Imagination Technologies approved by UK court"
,
reuters.com
- ^
Jack, Simon (14 April 2020).
"MPs summon China-owned firm over security concerns"
.
BBC News
. Retrieved
14 April
2020
.
- ^
"Imagination Technologies Group Ltd. Announces CEO Succession"
. 13 December 2018
. Retrieved
15 January
2019
.
- ^
"UK chip group Imagination Technologies strikes new Apple deal"
.
FT.com
. Retrieved
2 January
2020
.
- ^
"Former Arqiva Simon Beresford-Wylie named CEO of Imagination Technologies"
. Broadband and TV News. 6 October 2020
. Retrieved
20 June
2021
.
- ^
"Imagination sells WiFi assets to Nordic Semiconductor"
. Electronics Weekly. 30 November 2020
. Retrieved
20 June
2021
.
- ^
Manners, David (6 January 2021).
"Imagination revenues up 44%"
. Electronics Weekly
. Retrieved
20 June
2021
.
- ^
"Best Places to Work"
. Glass Door
. Retrieved
30 July
2023
.
- ^
"Imagination Technologies To Make A Triumphant PC Graphics Return?"
. hothardware.com. 8 November 2023
. Retrieved
19 April
2024
.
- ^
"Imagination Technologies introduce IMG DXD GPU architecture with DirectX 11 FL 11_0 support"
. videocardz.com. 8 November 2023
. Retrieved
19 April
2024
.
- ^
"IMG DXD: A New Horizon for Cloud Gaming"
. design-reuse.com. 8 November 2023
. Retrieved
19 April
2024
.
- ^
"Imagination Unveils New 128-wide ALU 'GPU of Everything' Family"
. eetimes.com. 4 December 2019
. Retrieved
19 April
2024
.
- ^
"Imagination and Telechips drive automotive display diversity with hardware virtualization"
. design-reuse.com. 14 March 2023
. Retrieved
19 April
2024
.
- ^
"Chip designer Imagination Technologies to 'cut up to 130 UK jobs'
"
. techmonitor.ai. 14 November 2023
. Retrieved
19 April
2024
.
External links
[
edit
]