Apple says not making an offer for supplier Imagination

Apple said on Tuesday it had talked about buying its supplier Imagination Technologies but did not plan to make an offer for the British graphics chip designer at the moment.

Shares in Imagination, which counts Applie amongst its top shareholders and whose technology is used in Apple devices including the iPhone and iPad, jumped earlier on Tuesday after website Ars Technica UK said Apple was in talks to buy the company. “From time to time, Apple talks with companies about potential acquisitions,” the U.S. company said in subsequent a statement. “We had some discussions with Imagination, but we do not plan to make an offer for the company at this time.”

Imagination has struggled to reduce its reliance on Apple and last month announced the departure of veteran chief executive Hossein Yassaie after 18 years in the job, along with a profit warning and restructuring plan.

At the beginning of the year, Apple acquired Emotient, an artificial intelligence startup that reads people’s emotions by analysing facial expressions. Emotient’s software reads the expressions of individuals and crowds to gain insights that can be used by advertisers to assess viewer reaction or a medical practitioner to better understand signs of pain in patients.

Reuters